Everything That Feels Good
by LJLL
Summary: Post-Fourth Shinobi War. A story of romance and humor and the effects of war on the warriors. Mainly ShikaTema, explores NaruSaku and SasuSaku, hints of ChouIno, and maybe eventual KibaHina.
1. Chapter 1

The war had been hard. Konohagakure was still not back to its former glory, reconstruction was still a constant presence every day, and the streets were flooded with foreign shinobi who had stayed behind, for one reason or another, to help with the effort. The Five Kage were still in the same place, at least for the time being, because of the political talks speaking of reformation. For the first time, such discussions were open to the public. Sasuke was present at every single one, putting everyone else on edge (despite his blocked chakra paths, monitored constantly by a Hyuuga). Tsunade was recovering slowly, but her tongue was as sharp as ever. All in all, Naruto had decided some time off was in order, and he had quickly made it into a group outing. He had invited Sasuke, but his offer had been rejected. Team Eight sited some business to attend to, and Team Ten didn't feel much like celebrating. That left Team Ten, Sakura, and Temari, who had been unapologetically attached to Shikamaru ever since their very public, very _passionate _display once they had to seen each other again.

To his surprise, both of Temari's brothers had shown up as well.

The Sand Siblings were interesting people. Allies, to be sure-Naruto was sure Suna would be allied with Konoha for many years to come-but difficult to deal with more often than not. Especially when all three were together. The best way to deal with this, the Konoha shinobi had found, was to get them drunk.

"Hey, hey, Gaara, how much does your sand weigh?"

Gaara blinked, unsure what this had to do with anything. "I… I'm not sure."

"You mean, you've never, like, measured it?" asked Ino, giggling into her hand.

Gaara shook his head.

"Why would he measure his sand?" asked Temari skeptically, downing a shot like a champ. "He has a lot of it. That would take forever. Time that could be spent doing _other things_. Like cloud watching, huh, Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru nodded, flushing. "That would be stupid, to measure his sand."

Temari, who looked pissed for a moment as if worried he was disagreeing with her, settled down again.

"Oi, Kankuro, what about your puppet?"

Said puppet-master shrugged. "I just know it's heavy, man."

"What about your fan, Temari?"

Temari shrugged, doing a very good imitation of Shikamaru's bored expression which only he seemed to understand. He smirked and chuckled.

"Shikamaru can't lift it."

"Woman!" He chastised, glaring now. "Yes, _I can._"

"No." She looked genuinely confused, but nonetheless very ready to argue her point. "Remember? You tried, the other night-"

"Temari, you said you weren't sleeping with him-"

Temari made a face. "Pfffbt." No, that wasn't right. "Pbbbt." No, hold on… Finally, a proper scoff. "Heh. I'm _not_. Obviously."

"Then why was he with you the other night?"

"Because _we're dating_."

A hush fell over the table, but Temari didn't seem to notice. She rolled her eyes, giving Shikamaru a look that plainly told him how stupid she thought her brother was.

Shikamaru smirked, throwing his arm over Temari's shoulders. He was bigger than her now; she wasn't sure exactly when that had happened. But it was sexy. He was sexy. He was all back muscles and lean torso.

"You're not going to kill me?" inquired Shikamaru, apparently also oblivious to the shock of everyone else at the table.

Gaara chanced a glance at Naruto, who was firmly shaking his head no. "No," said Gaara, "until…"

"Until you hurt her!" chimed in Sakura, punching the air in celebration of having a good answer.

"That sounds good." Agreed the Kazekage.

"He won'ttttttt." Disagreed Temari, puffing her lower lip out in a pout. "He's _nice_."

"Yeah," defended Ino suddenly, a kind of determination on her face that was not present before. "Shikamaru doesn't do anything half-assed when he actually bothers to do it. He probably loves her."

Just then, before anyone had the opportunity to react, Naruto piped up. "Hey, _I'm _nice! Why won't you go out with me, Sakura-chan? Do I need to be more like Shikamaru?"

Sakura started laughing-very, very hard.

Shikamaru frowned, sitting up to defend himself. Before he got the opportunity, Temari seized the front of his shirt and kissed him. His arms went around her, and the sound of Sakura's obnoxious laughter faded from both their ears.

Finally, Sakura stopped. "No, that isn't why." She smiled at him. "It's because…" she glanced at Ino, taking a deep breath. Ino furiously shook her head no. Sakura faltered, flushing. "I…" She looked back at Naruto, who was frowning. "That isn't why." She repeated.

"Then _why_?" demanded Naruto in a loud voice (so loud Shikamaru and Temari broke apart to look for the source of the loud sound).

Sakura mimed zipping her lips, her head shaking furiously back from side to side.

"Well, _I'm_ still waiting for Sasuke-kun." Ino proclaimed proudly.

Kankuro frowned. "The bastard who deserted your village? You could have, like, a loyal shinobi if you wanted. One who wasn't likely to murder you in your sleep."

Ino nodded, her hair flipping. "Oh, I don't want to marry him. I have to beat him up first, though, before I can allow myself to fall in love."

Chouji looked a bit put out. "Why are you beating him up?"

"For all the trouble he caused!" Ino raged suddenly, drawing the attention of Sakura and Naruto now, who had thus far been engaged in a "tell me"-"i won't tell you" tug-of-war. "He broke my heart, he treated Sakura like trash, _and_ he abandoned the village. No doubt if I let myself fall in love before I got to beat him up, I'd become too soft to do it properly!"

Chouji shook his head seriously. "There's no way that will ever happen, Ino."

Ino looked at Chouji in surprise, and then beamed at him. "Awwww, thanks."

Seeing that there were many couples around the table, Kankuro crossed his arms and pouted. It wasn't as if he could have sex with a puppet. _That_ would be fucking weird.

"Kankuro," Temari said suddenly, seated firmly in Shikamaru's lap, "who's is the heaviest?"

For a second, Kankuro's jumped to the breasts of all the Konohan kunoichis. Well, Hinata's, probably, were- She probably didn't mean that, though. Temari didn't swing that way. Obviously. He glared briefly at his sister's new seating choice, and then _tried_ valiantly to prevent his fingers from summoning Karosu.

"It's definitely not Gaara's sand."

Gaara looked put out. Temari ignored him. "Right. That gourd can only fit so much, and then it's full. Plus, sand isn't heavy."

"Not at all," agreed Shikamaru, the sake having made him oddly brave in unspecific ways.

"I'd say it's mine, then," agreed Temari, "my fan _is_ iron."

"Yeah, but you only have _one _fan." Argued Kankuro, calm despite the integrity of his precious puppets on the line. "I have _two_ puppets _at least_ on me at all times."

"But they're made of _wood_."

"Look, sis, I'd agree with you if you had two fans. But the fact is, you don't."

Seeing that Temari was pouting, Shikamaru took hold of her chin and guided her lips to his again. Temari sighed-in what Kankuro's opinion was an exaggeratedly loud sound-and wrapped her arms around his neck.

Across the table, Ino was watching Naruto and Sakura keep going.

"Tell me!"

"I'm not going to tell you!"

"Tell me!"

"I'm not going to tell you!"

"TELL ME!"

"I WILL NOT FUCKING TELL YOU!"

"FUCKING TELL ME!"

"I'M NOT TELLING YOU!"

Ino sighed, glancing at Chouji. He was munching on his appetizer, looking pointedly anywhere else but at his best friend making out. That shit weirded him out.

"Ino, do you know?" he whispered behind his hand.

Ino nodded.

"Will you tell _me_?"

Ino beamed again, excited to share this juicy piece of gossip. She leant toward Chouji. "Sakura won't date Naruto because she's afraid she'll fall in love with him."

Ino was not a drunk person who was able to whisper.

Dead silence sounded around the table again.

Temari and Shikamaru stopped kissing, all four of their eyebrows raising simultaneously.

Gaara was nodding. Kankuro was scoffing.

"You're too hot for him, Sakura. If you want my opinion."

"Nobody asked you for your opinion!" shouted Naruto and Sakura simultaneously.

Sudden realization struck Sakura and she retreated into her knees, apparently following the age-old saying from childhood that if she couldn't see anyone, they couldn't see her, either.

"Sakura-chan…" muttered Naruto in disbelief.

She didn't move, but it was obvious, even with her face mostly-hidden, that her face was tomato red.

Naruto poked her knee, but other than a twitch, Sakura did not move. He moved his hand to her calf and rubbed gently. "Sakura-chan, it's okay…"

Ino was panicking. "Sakura, I am _so_ sorry! I didn't mean to, I swear! At least I didn't tell him you had that sex dream about him-" Ino, aided by Chouji, clamped both of her hands over her mouth. Chouji's were in place as well, just to help muffle her unceasing panicked words of apology.

Sakura, unable to take any more embarrassment, leapt deftly out of the booth and ran out of the restaurant.

No one moved.

"Go after her!" shouted Temari and Ino in unison. The two blonde kunoichi met eyes, smiling in approval at each other.

Shikamaru made an annoyed sound, though the word "troublesome" was lost from his vocabulary, and contented himself with squeezing Temari's thigh.

Kankuro flicked the olive from Gaara's discarded martini at him. Unfortunately, his inebriated aim was a little off, and it went down Temari's shirt.

Shikamaru smirked, lifting his hand-

"Don't even think about it!" roared Kankuro.

Gaara sighed, slumping back against the seat.

Outside, Naruto was determinedly chasing a determinedly running away Sakura.

"Sakura-chan!" he yelled again, unable to move faster. "Sakura-chan!"

Naruto stumbled, falling face-first onto the street.

Sakura stopped suddenly, both at the impact and because her name was no longer being called. She looked back, only to see that he had fallen. Plainly worried, she dashed (with a surprising amount of grace, given her blood-alcohol level) over to him.

"Ow ow ow," Naruto complained, sitting up and holding his wrist. His right palm was scratched up and bleeding a little.

"Let me," Sakura said softly, taking his hand. She was resolutely avoiding his gaze, but as she worked with her bright green chakra, her technique was steady and precise. It was healed in a matter of seconds. Neither of them moved.

"You could… You could fall in love with me?"

Sakura didn't miss the hope in his voice. Her heart was a pounding a mile a minute, though, and it was making it even more difficult to get out the words her heavy tongue already impeded. "Of course I could, you idiot."

"What about… what about Sasuke?"

"I don't know," Sakura answered honestly, clutching her chest with a pained expression. "I don't know.. He… Sasuke-kun ripped my heart out, Naruto. It was the most painful thing I've ever gone through in my life. And I can't…" she took a deep breath, gasping so hard it almost sounded like a sob. "I can't go through that again."

Naruto was hanging his head, but he was nodding. Sakura still wasn't looking at him, though, so he opened his mouth to verbally tell her.

"But…" She finally looked up. "If there's anyone I can trust, it's you, Naruto."

His mouth changed tracks seamlessly. "I will never hurt you, Sakura-chan."

Sakura threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly. Naruto hugged back, burying his smile in Sakura's hair.

In another part of Konoha, Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara were still fighting over whose weapon was heaviest.

"It's _obviously_ mine!" insisted Temari in a loud voice, waving her fan dangerously. She was unsettled at this level of inebriation, and though she had no trouble lifting it, Shikamaru was worried about her ability to hold on to it.

"I have _two_ puppets!" screeched Kankuro in a deep voice, flailing his arms, puppet strings attached, in an attempt to win the argument by being the loudest.

"You don't even fucking lift anything, Kankuro! All you do is wiggle your god damn fingers!" Temari was a shred louder. But only just. To top it off, she started imitating him by waving her fingers in the most ridiculous fashion she could.

Shikamaru and Gaara roared with laughter, the former doubling over.

Encouraged by her audience's approval, she wiggled her fingers even more menacingly. After a few leisurely seconds,Temari placed both hands on her hips and smirked at Kankuro, who was so red in the face it looked as if his kabuki make up was melting off.

Kankura gave a roar of rage, stormed over to Temari, and yanked her fan from her clutches.

"Hey!" she shouted indignantly, but her voice lacked any real anger.

Kankuro scoffed impressively. "This isn't even heavy! What do you do, just open it? Flick it? Pssh, I can do that-" He opened the fan, nearly stumbling over. "Ha!" He smirked at Temari. "And I just wave it? That's not even hard!" He gave the fan a wave, and a blast of air hit Shikamaru and Gaara. Shikamaru only reflected on how strange it was to be protected by the sand instead of being afraid it would attack him.

Temari roared with laughter, doubling over herself. "You didn't- even _do _anything!" She gasped, crying tears of laughter now.

Kankuro tried again, and this time he lost his grip on the fan. It went whirling out of his grasp and right into one of the nearby buildings.

A tense silence settled among the four.

"My _fan_!" screeched Temari, sprinting over to it. When she pulled it from the rubble, the top was bent and massacred, unable to open.

Shikamaru's mouth was open in shock. Gaara's arms were crossed, a look of such disappointment on his face that Shikamaru took a step away.

Kankuro's hands were opening and closing uselessly, much like his mouth. "Mari… I'm sorry, I… Temari, I really, I'm _really, really_ sorry…"

Angry tears were in Temari's eyes. Turning toward Kankuro, she charged at him with all the power of an angry bull. He hit the ground hard, her fists making contact with his cheeks, shoulders, and chest relentlessly for several minutes.

When she was done, her chest was heaving with exhilaration, and the damn _tears_ had not gone from her eyes. She _loved_ that fan. She had had it for _ten years_. And now it was gone. Bent. Destroyed. Useless. She still picked it back up.

Kankuro had been prepared for the punching. He was still prepared for the inevitable screaming, the not-forgiving-him-for-several-months, the cold shoulder treatment. He, however, was not prepared for her actual reaction.

"I'll never forgive you." She told him quietly, sniffing only once. Shikamaru walked calmly forward, mostly sobered up by the tragic event, and took Temari's hand. Instead, she leaned her head on his shoulder, so he swapped by putting his arm around her. Muttering with her quietly, it took Kankuro a full minute to regain use of his vocal cords.

"I.. I didn't mean…"

But they were already gone.

"But is it the flowers that attract the _butterflies, _or the butterflies that attract the _flowers_?"

"It's the flowers," insisted Chouji. "Butterflies wouldn't come to pollinate in a certain area if there weren't flowers already there."

Ino, having expected an argument challenging the dignity of her precious plants, was surprised to be agreed with. She smiled at Chouji. "That's what I think, too."

Sakura, who was rapidly falling more and more asleep given how comfortable and warm she was, had quite forgotten they were in the middle of the road. Naruto had to pull back, gently bumping her forehead with his.

The cool metal was a surprising sensation, enough to make Sakura open her eyes. Before she could say anything, Naruto spoke.

"I'll take you home."

She smiled softly at him, and the two stood up. Once they were both on their feet, Sakura took Naruto's hand. She'd never done it before-not like this-but she wasn't analyzing right now. She was still drunk and she was very, very tired, and all she was capable of processing was how nice his hand felt in hers. How safe she felt around him. How she wanted him to smile like that every day, preferably at her.

Sakura's house was not far, but Naruto's apartment was closer. She halted when she spotted it-none of the lights were on, but she recognized it just the same.

"Can I sleep over?"

Naruto didn't have to think about it, she thought. But he didn't sound exactly eager, either. "Of course you can, Sakura-chan."

She told herself it was because he liked not being alone, and he trusted her and liked her, and cared about her, and it was just about the safety of the thing.

"You can sleep on the couch," he said quietly, not unhappily. "Let me just get you a blanket." Despite his words, he didn't move to break her grip on his hand.

Sakura didn't move, either. "Actually…" She blushed, wondering if he knew it wasn't from the alcohol.

He tilted his head.

"I… I would like to sleep with you, Naruto. Next to you. I… I feel safe with you."

Naruto's grin was huge and infectious, and it made Sakura feel like she was walking on air. "Keep your pants on," she teased.

Naruto blushed, his free hand rubbing the back of his neck. "You, too," he managed. She picked up on the _something_ in his tone, even if she was unable to define it. It made her feel funny, the good kind of funny. The good kind of funny she got around him sometimes that he, in all her memories, would always do something incredibly stupid and make it leave very quickly.

But he wasn't moving. Sakura doubted he was even breathing.

She had been to his bedroom before. Been in it, sat on his bed, kicked aside the numerous, incredibly wrinkled clothes on the floor while looking for things-so she knew where to go. Even so, her movements were little more than robotic when she turned toward his room. In they went, and closed went the door.

However, Sakura didn't let herself get nervous. Acting as normally as possible, she gestured for him to climb in first. With a giggle, she noticed his face was scarlet. However, since she was sure hers matched, she said nothing. Once he looked comfortable, she climbed in after him.

It was awkward. She closed her eyes and tried to breathe, to force her body to still, but her eyes shot back open. And there was Naruto, his big, blue eyes so close to hers. He still looked nervous, but happiness was very obvious in his face, too. With another deep breath, she scooted and rearranged herself so that her back was pressed against his front. Like instinct, she thought-for no sooner had she stopped moving than he did it-his arm came around her, secure and gentle and warm. Naruto was very warm.

"I feel so safe with you," she admitted in a quiet, yet very clear voice. Something about the feeling in the room was getting to her, was aiding her already sleep-addled mind in taking down all the barriers. "This safe," she murmured, snuggling, "is something I could _never_ feel with Sasuke."

"I'm so _angry_!" She fumed. "I'm angry, and I'm sad, and, dammit, Shika, I'm _drunk_."

He kissed her quickly, brushing his lips against her skin because he could. "I know."

"Fucking _Kankuro_!" She hissed, an impressive amount of emotion in her voice, even for her. Not anger, but rage, not sadness, but disappointment, depression, fear, not drunk-not that drunk was an emotion-but a sense of betrayal he sort of wished his keen mind wasn't so observant of. He was supposed to be drunk, too.

But then, he always had a strange ability to hold his alcohol.

She broke away from him suddenly, waving her destroyed prized possession. "Look at my fan, Shikamaru! _Look at my fan!_"

Somehow, his intuition told her she didn't really mean "look at my fan". He looked anyway, though, just to be safe. "We can fix it," he told her gently, "but not right now. It's three in the morning."

This appeared to be news to Temari. Had she really been out that late with his friends and her brothers? She may have been twenty, but sometimes she felt just as young as Shikamaru. Seventeen wasn't that long ago, but he was fourteen three years ago, and any possibility of the two of them being what they are now was non-existent. But then he became her guide, then came the bantering, the annoying tendency he had to stay in her head, and then came the War… There was little else like being scared shitless the person you begrudgingly could not stop thinking about and wanted to _be with_ was going to die to motivate you to fuck everything and tell them.

Luckily, she didn't actually need to tell him. They first second they saw each other after everything was over, they rushed at each other-exactly like some kind of stupid cheesy romance novel-and kissed so hard he lifted her off her feet.

It had been… some number of days since then, and she'd yet to leave Konoha. Yet to leave his side, actually. She might have had a slight case of PTSD, what with seeing her dad, and being scared _again_ that Gaara was going to die, and being scared of never telling him how she felt, and feeling utterly _powerless _despite all the supposed strength she had as a kunoichi. Naruto had had to save them all, _again_. And he couldn't even tell the girl he was in love with how he felt.

At least she could one-up him there, take pride in the fact that _she_ had a better romantic relationship.

She raised her hands up to rest on either side of his face. For a second, she was content to hold his face and study the angular slopes of it, half-wondering, as always, when he'd gotten so physically mature. And then she kissed him, long and hard and with-_at least_-everything she had.

Finally, forced to breathe, she pulled away. She watched his dark eyes slowly open back up, intent on perceiving the swirls of emotion. She felt, because she had not moved away more than absolutely necessary to get more oxygen, him smile, and before she knew it, she was, too.

"What?" he asked her, voice a bit deeper than she was accustomed to. (But it had only been some number of days… like twelve, maybe.)

"You," she said simply, kissing him again. Words were too troublesome to use at this point for Temari, so she moved her mouth against his. She wrapped her arms around him, stood on her tiptoes, fisted her hand in the hair at the back of his neck, and let her body slide against his. As Temari had discovered from the very first second, Shikamaru was not lazy about his kissing.

In fact, he was very meticulous and thorough, never slow, a quick study and not afraid to experiment-with educated guesses-as to what she would like best. She melted every time.

This time, he was the one to pull away. "You spending the night again?"

She nodded. Other women, she mused, might be offended by his question. She knew he was just checking. It was probably something to do with his stupid gentlemanliness, the thing she was surprised to discover so early on in their relationship was so drilled-in to his skull, and probably something else to do with the fact that they hadn't defined anything, and also likely something else about them not knowing what to do when the time came for her to go back. They were both ignoring it with all their might, but sometimes it was flashing neon and screaming: Suna.

She shook her head to clear her mind of the image. She went to his set of drawers, where her clothes had mysteriously ended up, she thought probably thanks to his mother, who had assumed some things of her own Temari wasn't even sure needed correcting, and changed into something more comfortable. He may have been looking. She didn't check. She didn't care.

She wasn't sure when his shirt had ended up under her classification of "something to wear to bed", let alone "something suitable to wear ever", but this is how it had been every night since the war ended.

He was already in bed when she turned back to him. Without pretense, she crawled in after him. He worked the pigtails out of her hair, because he knew she forgot and because he liked her with her hair down. That had been one of the first things he'd said to her after the mad fit of kissing had stopped long enough for talking, a request if she could have it down more.

She snuggled in, wriggling until her ear was right over his heart. It was steady, and this number, the number of nights she had spent listening to Shikamaru's heart beating as she fell asleep, she did actually know: six.

It had probably been six days since the war, but she wasn't sure. It had just been six nights of sleeping in his bed with him, listening to his heart, with his arm resting too-low over her hips to be permissible as anything other than a lover. But she knew the way she touched him wasn't anything less either, anymore. She loved him. He probably loved her. But Temari knew neither of them were ready for the conversation. The wounds were too raw and the adrenaline was still fierce. They had spent too many months constantly on-guard, fearful of dying every second. Right now, they needed this. Stability and freedom and _everything_ that felt good.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: This chapter ups the rating of the story to M. Didn't think it would happen quite so soon, but here it is. **

**In my story, Shikaku isn't dead. I forgot until I had written the scene, so I just went with it.**

**Also, cripes! This chapter is twice the length of the previous. I went crazy, but I'm very proud of it. Enjoy!**

Temari was an early riser by circumstance, not by nature. By nature, she was one of those in-between people who was just as happy waking up at seven as eight, at eight-thirty as nine-thirty. It was just that all her life she had been pushed to train every single morning, preparing for war that was the eventuality of every conflict in Shinobi History. At least, that was what her father had believed. Even after three years, it was difficult to forget some of things he had drilled into her head.

Not all of them were bad things. Despite his legacy, he was not a _terrible_ father. Temari didn't believe in measuring the worth of someone by the mistakes he or she had made. If Shikamaru did, if the people of Konoha did, there was no way she would be here right now.

He had told her to brush her teeth every day. He had told her not to grow her hair long, for it would get in the way on missions. He had told her to train hard each and every day, that she was Suna royalty and that she had a burden to bear as the Kazekage's daughter and it was expected that she was good. One of the best. He had told her the trick to a basic substitution jutsu was determination and will, the same as a basic bunshin jutsu. Brush her teeth, have short hair, train each and every day, have determination and will, be the best.

He had told her some not-so-good things too. He had told her she wasn't pretty, she was a kunoichi. He had told her she would always be weaker as a woman, no matter what she did the enemy would view her as such. She could be raped, she could be pregnant, and it would make her a target. He had told her that he had wanted a son, but the fact that she was his daughter meant she would have siblings. He had told her she would never be loved. That it was difficult to love royalty, and with her father and brothers being who they were, it was unlikely she would know what it was like to be loved. She was not pretty, she was weaker than a man, and she would likely never be loved.

Some things were drilled into her head through words, and some through looks. His voice was hard and cold and commanding, and not easy to forget even if he did not use it. He was not an easy man to forget, period.

He was also the first person to break her fan.

Eight is the traditional age in Suna when young, promising shinobi were told to pick out the weapon they would specialize in for the rest of their lives. She picked an iron fan she could not lift. It was a symbol of her strong will as the Kazekage's daughter, a symbol of her strong body as a woman that would not be taken advantage of-and it was a symbol of her free spirit, beaten down by her father and her duties but not broken.

In her worst moments, she considered flying away.

She had come to realize in the years since his death that her father had been right about just as many things as he had been wrong. Her mother's genes made her pretty and her father's words made her strong. She was a force to be reckoned with, both beautiful and powerful.

The Kazekage's sister, well-known throughout all Five Great Shinobi Countries, had fallen in love with a Konoha shinobi. Her fall from grace would likely be swift and it would likely be painful, but she was in love. And it was disarmingly glorious.

"I can hear you thinking," he muttered sleepily. His neck had lolled in the night, making the expanse of it the first thing she saw. His jawline was next, and then his eyes, still closed, followed by the slight furrow in his brow.

"I woke up before you," she said easily, a quiet kind of resignation in her voice. She caught the second furrow, at once upset and amazed that she put it there.

One eye opened, and then two. He scrutinized her for several long moments, and then he pressed her more securely into him. He yawned for a long time-several seconds, the enemy could have attacked him in the space of his yawn-and at last looked properly at her. "What are you thinking about?"

"My father."

Immediately, she saw him wake up. What had been the dominant expression on his face, sleepiness, morphed into confusion. More than that, it was the face he made when he didn't understand something.

Against her better nature that swore up and down that she would never be one of those girls who felt the need to _take care_ of their significant other like he was four fucking years old, she didn't like that look on his face. He understood so many things so effortlessly, and it was another shock of mixed feelings that she was able to do this to him. She kissed his chest, almost an apology, but more an impulse she hadn't thought to beat down, and sat up.

His shirtlessness, for once, did nothing to dissuade her from what she wanted to say. While she waited for him to get the message and sit up himself, she raked her fingers through her tangled dirty blonde tresses.

"I don't know much about him," Shikamaru pried softly. His legs were crossed, but he was leaning toward her, showing simply in the slant of his spine that he cared.

It was another time Temari was glad for something her father gave her, her ability to read body language. Inspired, she took his hand so she could play with his fingers while she spoke.

"My father was a horrible person." She began bluntly, for the moment settling with his fingers between hers. "He turned my brother into a jinchuuriki, he took away my other brother's right to rule, and he tried to turn me into a man. He only wanted sons. He only wanted tall, strong, naturally-ambitious leaders for children. Robots. Not ninja with their own personalities and strengths. He was a ruthless dictator with incredibly high standards no one could ever live up to. He let my mother die, he never showed mercy, and anything remotely resembling "praise" was a foreign concept to him. But…" she took a deep breath, "I would not be who I am today without him."

She waited a few seconds, allowing him to process the flood of information she had just given him. Maybe that was part of the reason why they worked, because she understood him intuitively. Their brains worked in a lot of the same ways.

Still, when she smiled at him, he did not smile back. He wasn't as learned in hiding his emotions as she was. So Temari let her fake smile fade.

"He wasn't a horrible father, not really. He was a horrible Kazekage, a horrible person, but he wasn't a horrible father. His wife died, he had no idea how to show affection to his children, and the only form of endearment he knew was completing a mission flawlessly." She bit her lip, looking at his eyes again. He still wasn't smiling.

His sudden words surprised her, though. "You're thinking about the Chunin Exams." It wasn't a question.

"Not just," she commented, "Suna in general." Her other hand was resting on her knee, pushing and pulling the skin, tapping her patella, anything so she wasn't completely still.

"About how you have to go back."

She nodded, bravery swelling in her gut. "About how I don't want to."

The early morning light was an unwelcome intrusion into Kankuro's hotel room. Everything was so damn _bright_ in Konoha, and the gleam of the pale civilian's skin he'd brought into his room last night was no different. So fucking pale. There was no sun in Konoha. Too many clouds.

She was still attractive by light, that was nice, but he knew she'd never do anything long-term for him. No one ever did. It was physical. He'd leave her the key and ask her to turn it in.

He stood, dressing. His face was clear for once, his tan features suddenly visible, striking without the purple lines. Once fully dressed, an art masterfully cultivated over the past few years where the only sound he made was the unfortunately inevitably sound of the door clicking shut, he grabbed his puppet over his back again. He left the key on the table and made his way to the front door.

He wasn't exactly _surprised_ to see Gaara standing outside his hotel room, arms crossed and leaning against the wall, as close to sleeping as he ever got, even now, but he did jump a little. He waited for the door to click, and then he glared.

"How long have you been there?"

Gaara didn't acknowledge his question. "I've never been drunk before."

"And you don't have a hang over? Probably swallowed too much sand over the years."

Gaara didn't laugh, but he didn't scowl, and Kankuro knew it counted as a win. "Shall we go find sister dear and make her take us around?"

Gaara shook his head. "You really think she wants to see you?"

The events of last night came ricocheting back to Kankuro, and he shuddered. "Fuck."

"I thought we agreed _not _to give Temari more reasons to stay here?"

"I was drunk!"

"Apparently _you_ need to swallow more sand."

For half a second, Kankuro expected the cap to pop and sand to come rushing at him out of the gourd. Old habits, old expectations. He grinned weakly at Gaara, hoping it sufficed as an apology as well as a greeting.

"There's another meeting." said Gaara. It was wordlessly understood that Kankuro would follow. The Kazekage was already one body guard short.

"Is it _bad_ that I'm grinning?"

She laughed shortly. "No." She was a bit breathless, half from his smile and half from all the emotion still inside her. "Is it bad that I don't want to go?"

"No!" He said immediately, forcefully. Regretfully, he backtracked. "I may be biased."

This made Temari laugh. "You probably are." But she liked that he was. It meant he cared.

"I don't miss him," she told Shikamaru. "I don't miss anything about him. What does that say about me, his own daughter, his eldest child? The one person alive with the most memories of him?"

Shikamaru didn't have anything to say, and she was strangely grateful.

"But I… I do miss Suna." She had been away now for six months. Maybe seven. All the Leaf shinobi were home and already reacclimating to life post-war. She and all the other foreign ninja were still waiting to go back, a category she was unquestionably put in that made her feel out of place here.

"I expected you to." He said, and something in his voice took her by surprise. "After all, you've lived there for twenty years. There has to be _something_ about it you like." Always so logical, this one. Maybe he knew what the something in his voice was. Or maybe he didn't even know it was there. Still, the familiarity in the way he thought was comforting.

"I guess I wanted you to know," she said uncertainly. Her sentence did not taper off and her voice was not hesitant. She blunt and honest and her sentences were clear. She just… didn't know how to deal with emotion. She was not versed in sorting through feelings the way she was slicing through a battlefield. "Because…" Words failed her. Not uncertainty, just a lack of sounds for further explanation. "I… We…"

"I appreciate it." He said, and to Temari the force of emotion in his voice made it sound like he was yelling. This was something he was definitely better than her at. That was one thing about Konoha she had always envied, ever since she first came here. In the deepest parts of her, the parts she kept hidden from even herself, she liked that they smiled.

She felt her lips lift in a smile of her own as still more emotion fill her. Before she could even start to analyze the latest flood, his mouth was on hers. She made a happy sound, looping her arms around his neck as automatically as she'd open her fan. Being a quick study, his tongue already knew just the flicks, just the tastes, just the teasing to do to get her to respond the best. She shifted, nipping at his lip. He groaned quietly, and her tug on his shoulder was instinctual.

As probably was him shifting to press her back into the mattress. Probably.

Regardless, that's where she found herself now. He was taking care not to put his full weight on her, but he was still draped across her body in hot, heavy ways that made her unable to properly breathe. The planes of his hard chest pushed against her breasts, stealing what little breath she had remaining. Their tongues were fierce and their hands were bold, slipping places and exploring crevices of the other's body blindly, with only the intent to feel more skin.

He shifted above her, probably instinctually, so that a knee rested between her legs. One of his hands kept racing daringly down her sides, over and over in new and changing patterns Temari found herself unable to predict, closer and closer. At long last, one his thumbs brushed over one of her breasts. She fought to keep her sharp gasp to herself, but when he did it again with more pressure the sound was impossible to keep to herself.

She felt the intensity of his gaze, even through all her new emotion she still hadn't identified, and blinked hers eyes open, unsure when they had closed. His face was flushed, but she saw no trace of embarrassment in his eyes. Instead, she saw something deeper, something rich and dark and almost predatory. Without apology, he did it again, plucking at her nipple through his shirt.

It was just the right amount of pressure. She released a low moan, the sensation of his fingers so securely and undeniably _there_ ripping throughout her body. She arched her back, scrabbling for leverage. One of her hands found his upper back and the other clutched at his bicep. Every time he experimented, direct touches and indirect touches, circling and plucks, she clutched harder at his shoulder. Every time he ventured past that small part of her and experimented with testing the weight of her full breast in his hand, fondling and cupping, squeezing, constantly tearing his gaze from what his hand was doing to intently watch her face, she felt liquid heat gather in higher and higher volumes.

The rush of feeling was all too much, too new, and she, quite frankly, was unable to stand it. She caught his mouth with her own, kissing him aggressively and heatedly and slipping her tongue into his mouth and nipping generously. She was wriggling, running her hands all up and down his back-his spine, his ribs, good, he's still got them-dragging him back down to her.

There was something of a crash and he stopped holding himself up completely. Their similar heights were to their advantage, because there was definitely something hard and long residing near the vicinity of her navel. She broke the kiss to smirk at him, moving her right hand down his frame confidently. This she had done before. This she knew how to do.

She shot him another grin before touching him, rubbing her thumb almost delicately over the outline, then slipping her whole hand beneath his shorts. His grunts made her skin light on fire, her hand continuing even as she arched toward him. It was _hot_ it was too fucking hot and she was sick of wearing clothes all the damn time. Sleeping naked was frowned upon next to your _something_ in his parents' house, apparently. Not that his morals had been enough the first night.

"Temari," he said suddenly, his voice strangely commanding, strangely a turn-on given their location.

"What?" she asked teasingly, not stopping her hand.

"Jesus," he gasped suddenly, arching his hips. "No, Temari, wait."

She halted. No sooner did she open her mouth did she feel his fingers rub her through her panties. The cotton wasn't exactly what she wanted, but it _was_ delicious friction. "Bastard," she gasped, fighting to keep from rolling her hips.

It didn't take much more encouragement at all for him to slip his hand inside the fabric, running a finger along her slick heat before teasing her clit. When her gasps evolved into whimpers, he slipped a finger inside her. _He had a strategy. Of course._

"Don't- Shikamaru- I am going to _kill you_ if you-"

"Shhh," he muttered, inserting a second finger.

"You condescending-" But she was riding the high now, and the insult wouldn't leave her lips. She gasped, bucking her hips. He was groaning as well, under his breath, but she couldn't miss his breathlessness even while she was like this.

She _had_ thought about giving up, but that smirk… She took her hand from the anchor on his hip and slipped it inside his loose-fitting pants again. He didn't stop her.

Their symphony of grunting and groaning was coming quickly to a head. Temari could feel everything building, less slowly now that they were working on each other, but she almost preferred it this way. This was quickly becoming her favorite thing- ever- in the _entire world_- his fucking fingers were so _long-_

"Shikamaru! Temari! Come down for breakfast!"

A shudder, a bump, two remarkably small orgasms ultimately delivered by the utter shock of hearing his mother's voice shatter the moment. Hand still on him, she groaned loudly, annoyed, and buried her face in his neck.

"Get your own place."

He grunted in agreement, fingers still inside her. Some messy shuffling resulted in him climbing off her and helping her up, hands being washed, a quick change of clothing in which they forced themselves not to look at each other, and at last a standing couple.

"One last thing."

When he reached for her hips, she thought he was just going to feel her up again. Instead, he tugged down her (_his_) t-shirt. It had bunched up, revealing her underwear quite nicely.

She laughed. She hadn't felt it.

"Don't want my parents seeing that." One corner of his mouth was lifted in a smirk. She kissed it off his face, only for it to turn into a grin.

"No one but you," she said lightly, like it was pure fact. She took his hand and led him down the stairs. "Your grin is dopey." She muttered.

"Your face is red." He fired back not a second later.

Safe, undeniably. Warm, definitely. But in love? She didn't know.

Sakura could easily recognize in the rational part of her brain that Naruto made sense. He would always treat her right, he had loved her for years, and there was no doubt that he was a good person. Everyone counted on him, and he always followed through. But wouldn't that mean he would have less time for her, if he was trying to help out everyone else? And did it make her selfish that she cared?

The thought of being selfish, so selfish that she would take the Hokage away from the village, made her uneasy. She didn't _want_ to take the Hokage away from the village. She just wanted a boyfriend she could count on, who would devote attention to her, who loved her with all his heart. She didn't think she was asking for too much.

But then, maybe the fact that she was sneaking out the door told her she was asking too much. Maybe she didn't deserve Naruto, and this was her clearly-wiser subconscience's way of showing her. Maybe deep inside, she knew he was too good for her, that she'd hurt him too much and expected too much of him. Maybe, even if he was good for her, _she _was bad for _him_.

She opened the door and very nearly ran straight into Sasuke.

"Hi," Sakura squeaked reflexively. "Come in."

"I didn't knock yet."

"I heard you anyway. You were practically stomping." It was a lie, a very blatant lie, but it was a reflex, too. Sasuke was the last person she could trust, and it made her defensive. The fact that he'd caught her thinking romantically about the other member of their team made her jumpy.

"I'll get him," Sakura volunteered, missing the way the Uchiha's eyes narrowed when she went back in Naruto's bedroom.

Now with a door safely between her and "The Last Avenger", or whatever the fuck he was calling himself, Sakura could breathe. _Damn him_. _Damn him, damn him, damn him! He should _not _be allowed to be that hot._

If Naruto were that hot, things would be easier… Not that he _wasn't_ good-looking. He was! He absolutely was! And he was so much _kinder_ than Sasuke! That put him _leagues_ ahead of him! Not that they were competing, or anything! Not that she had feelings for them both and didn't know what to do…

Realization hit Sakura like a ton of bricks, and she slid down the door and onto the floor. _Mother fucker._

Immensely thankful that Naruto was a heavy sleeper, she took as long as she needed to compose herself. At last, she shook him gently, smiling at how peaceful he looked. "Naruto," she whispered, "Naruto, wake up."

"Mmm, Sakura-chan?" He questioned.

Thinking he was waking up, she nodded. "Yeah, come on-"

His lips were extended into a kissy face. He was still dreaming.

Face red as a tomato, she glanced wildly behind her as if afraid Sasuke had come into the room and was witnessing this spectacle. "Naruto," Sakura tried again, shaking him more forcefully, "Naruto!"

When this didn't work either, she decided to pick him up. Hoisting him over her shoulder, grumbling and rolling her eyes all the while, she kicked open the door and deposited him none-too-gently on the couch.

Sasuke's eyes were wide, only for an instant. Sakura missed it this time, too.

"Wake him up however you want." She crossed her arms. "He's out cold."

As it turned out, even the heavy sleeper Naruto could be jolted into consciousness by the threat of a Chidori'd boot up the ass.

Despite herself, Sakura found that she was giggling. She cleared her throat, trying to look composed and like she _hadn't_ just laughed so heartfeltly at something Sasuke had done. This time, her eyes met his and she offered him a smile. This time, she caught it. The look in his eye… It made her heart beat fast.

"Don't actually do that, okay? He has digestion problems from his poor diet and lack of ability to read the expiration date on milk cartons."

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto whined loudly, blushing.

Sasuke smirked, onyx eyes twinkling in amusement.

"You don't even have your chakra anyway, bastard…"

Few things made Temari feel younger-or _better_, maybe the word was better-than eating with the Naras. They were so familial it practically rotted her teeth.

"Morning," said Shikaku easily. The elder Nara's eyes were calculating like his son's, but Temari thought they lacked a distinct warmth Shikamaru's usually had. Still, the resemblance between them was uncanny. The fact that he greeted them at all was so different from her own father.

"Morning," replied Temari over Shikamaru's grunt.

"Temari-chan," _God_, no one had called her that in _years_, "would you like some eggs?"

"Whatever's fine, Nara-san."

"Yoshino!"

"Yoshino," Temari repeated obediently, smiling at Shikamaru's mother. She may or may not have been calling her "Yoshino-san" on purpose, just to hear the demand to drop the honorific. Still, the woman wasn't stupid, and Temari was surprised she hadn't caught on yet. Shikamaru didn't get it _all_ from his dad, and there was no way- Of course she knew. Yoshino knew, and she still did it anyway. She cared enough about Temari to keep doing it for her. Shikamaru and Shikaku probably knew, too, but didn't say anything.

Something warm filled her chest. "Thank you," she said genuinely when Yoshino put down a big plate of food in front of her. "I can't believe you cook like this _every day_, Yoshino-s-," Temari caught herself, this time realizing it had been an accident. "It's really amazing."

Feeling Shikamaru's gaze on her, she smiled at his mother. "They don't know how lucky they are."

"They're Nara men, dear. They know, they just don't acknowledge."

"Now wait a minute," Shikaku piped up, "I definitely-" His wife was glaring at him. "Of course I acknowledge it." He went on, undeterred. "I tell you I love you, and I compliment your cooking, and-"

"But do you ever offer to do the dishes? Do you ever help? Do you ever offer to cook yourself and let _me_ sit down and play Shogi with our son?"

Shikaku was silent. "And that's the Nara women," Yoshino went on, "gifted with the ability to shut up their genius husbands." Temari smiled, laughing. Yoshino gave Shikamaru a significant look.

They all had their food now and were eating, chatting amicably, Temari feeling secure with the feeling of Shikamaru's knee brushing her own. If she could help it, she always wanted to be touching him now. Or him touching her. She just wanted them touching, and if she could help it, they never wouldn't be. For now.

"So Temari, are you going back to the Sand with your brothers?"

Attuned to him as she had become in battle, Temari imagined she could feel every atom in Shikamaru's body freeze. She turned toward Shikaku, smiling lightly. "Eventually," she muttered, surprising even herself with what came out of her mouth.

She could also feel Shikamaru relax, but she knew he didn't like to deal in eventualities. They were too imprecise and open to too much change.

"They still have the Reformation Meetings to attend to, so it's uncertain how long Gaara will have to stay here."

"Of course," said Yoshino, "and dear you know you'll always have a place here with us, should you choose to want it."

"Thank you," said Temari politely, "you've been very generous."

"You _are_ my girlfriend. Mom's only been waiting for me to have one since I was five."

Girlfriend. The word sounded nice leaving his lips. She turned and smiled at him, an incredibly rare moment of shyness that was not lost on Shikamaru. Her boyfriend. He kissed her quickly.

"No public displays of affection at the-" Yoshino's glare silenced her husband.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" asked Naruto irritably.

"Tsunade sent me to get you. They want the candidates for the Sixth Hokage at the rest of the meetings." There was no doubt, by Sasuke's tone of voice, just what he thought of the fact that his absurd "revolution" idea had failed and that there were still going to be Hokages. Sakura ignored it.

"Which is why you're there?"

"Not technically," Sasuke answered slowly, as if surprised she'd surmised that. "It was my idea in the first place, and since I got a lot of support for it, they're trying to take my opinions into account. Sort of."

Sakura laughed again. "Right. Your completely calm, rational opinions."

Naruto laughed as well. "Let me get changed." His happy mood was back, just like that. Sakura had to admire that about him.

Had she not been admiring so hard, she might have realized she didn't want to be alone with Sasuke. She backed into the wall and folded her arms, glaring coolly at him. Though he only looked back at her and didn't take a step toward her, Sakura felt as if she couldn't look away. It was like she was in his Genjutsu, except that he hadn't even activated his Sharingan. His eyes were just entrancing, so dark and mysterious, and locked _right_ on her…

"Alright, let's go, dattebayo!"

Sakura laughed uncomfortably, smiling. "I'll walk you guys." She teased, looping her arm through Naruto's. The blonde looked especially pleased at this contact, and even more so when it continued out the door. Sasuke stayed carefully to the side of them, just a half-step in front.

Sasuke had always been very graceful, ever since they were in the academy. It was natural to him. So when he stumbled and Sakura instinctively shot her arm out, it was more than a little surprising.

"Teme?"

Sasuke scoffed. "Turns out constantly getting your chakra passages blocked impedes your ability to walk."

Sakura kept a carefully neutral expression. "Well, lean on me if it helps. I'd have to heal you if you got hurt, and I'd rather not waste my chakra."

Sasuke hesitated, and then put his arm around Sakura's shoulders. "This does help."

It wasn't "thank you", but it was probably all she would get.

"She's the best Medic in the world, dattebayo!"

"Yeah, I'm the best Medic in the world!" Sakura grinned, to her credit recovering from her surprise very quickly. "So listen to me. I know what I'm talking about!"

...

Somewhere in the world, Sakura rationalized, there had to be someone going through a more awkward situation. Naruto, to her right, arm looped through hers, glaring suspiciously at Sasuke, arm wrapped around her shoulders, who also had to lean on her because apparently he'd gotten his chakra pathways blocked too many times to walk without stumbling, glaring defiantly back at Naruto.

Kami, it was like being a Genin all over again.

"Look, we're here!" Sakura cheered falsely, extracting herself from both the boys with ease. She held the preliminary door to the Hokage Tower open, grinning at them both. Unaccustomed as she was to entering from the ground floor, Sakura was even more unaccustomed to seeing the building this full. Tsunade and Shizune were in attendance at the center of the room, the other Four Kages and their bodyguards in their immediate circle. There were several ANBU at the perimeter, and likely several more hidden. Gaara nodded to Naruto and Sakura, and even Kankuro acknowledged them with a look.

"Well, I'll be going…"

"Sakura-chan…"

"I'm not a Hokage candidate, so I don't belong here." She smiled at Naruto. "Don't worry about it. Find me at Ino's later." She almost turned to say goodbye to Sasuke, only managing to stop herself at the last second. He noticed, she thought. She felt his gaze flicker away.

With the door closed behind her, Sakura felt a lot less pressure. They were her friends-even Sasuke, sort of-and her old team, so _of course_ she was going to be with them a lot. People could be so judgemental.

She put boys out of her mind and walked to Ino's house, happy to be alone for the first time in over a day.

The Reformation Meetings were boring. Sasuke had known this from the second they insisted they had to talk everything out and build from the rubble instead of just tearing everything down and starting again. They didn't know what they were talking about, and if he had his power, he would be able to _make_ them see that he was right. But it was a start, and he could still intimidate. Kind of.

"Why was Sakura at your house so early?"

"Hmmm?" asked Naruto, looking up from stuffing his face. He hadn't had breakfast.

"Why was Sakura at your house?" Sasuke asked again, eyes narrowing.

Naruto raised a brow, unimpressed and suspicious. "What's it to you, teme?"

"Look, dobe, you're about to be leading the reformation of a hundreds-of-years-old system that is completely trash; you can't have a girl distracting you."

Naruto bristled visibly. Sasuke smirked at how easy it was to rile him up. That, at least, hadn't changed. Naruto still seemed to have feelings for Sakura.

"Don't worry about it." Naruto said stiffly.

It wasn't intimidation, Sasuke knew. It was just pushing a button. A feeble, obvious button, at that. But Naruto was the most used to him, stupid as ever in a way he'd probably never lose no matter how many battles he fought, wars he won, or years he spent being Hokage, and he'd never really been intimidated by the Uchiha.

Sasuke turned his attention forcibly to one of the Elders, silently bristling. Sudden consuming rage filled him. The fact that he had even _allowed them to live_, these moronic geezers who were responsible for the extinction of his entire clan, for all the suffering Itachi went through, should have humbled them extraordinarily. Instead, they kept shooting him glances, half-wary and half-superior.

He intimidated them, at least. Killing Danzo had been no small feat. Sasuke probably would have felt pride if he was still able to feel anything at all. But he'd murdered too many, been through too much, been consumed by hatred too long to feel _anything_ other than mild annoyance at the most positive.

Except around Sakura. She'd actually given him some amusement earlier today. He'd smirked, not at a job well-done, not at an opponent, but because he had actually found something amusing. The fact that he'd felt an even remotely positive emotion at all was grounds for a parade, were he not likely to snap and slaughter them all for annoying him. The fact that it was _Sakura_ who'd made him feel this wasn't surprising. He'd only stayed in Konoha so long the first time because of her. Ultimately, her warmth and kindness had delayed the inevitable. By logic, there was no reason to say it wouldn't happen again.

By emotion, he might wonder if there wasn't an eventuality about it this time. Maybe he could stay and finally let go of some of the blinding anger that resided permanently in his chest.

But she'd been at Naruto's an early hour, which logical meant she had spent the night. He'd never cared to notice, in the times he had seen Sakura and Naruto react in the recent past, how their interaction had changed. But now it was obvious. There was something there, something he had missed before, something his absence had likely caused.

He drowned out the elders again, figuring Naruto would fill him in later if he asked. Or if he got him riled up enough, he'd probably yell it all out.

Sometimes, he debated his goal. On the one hand, dying just when Konoha was hopeful for his assistance would serve them right. He hoped it happened again, too, more death and more destruction and more upset. They had every right to suffer, these sadistic bastards who had killed his family, and adding to their turmoil would be a good last act. On the other hand, he could go around to civillians and kunoichi alike and ensure the council would never be able to find all the new little Uchihas they'd have running around in a few years. He was constantly torn between ending his clan and giving it a growth spurt. Indecision made him bored, but so did all this talking. Change demanded action, not debate.

He walked out of the room without a backward glance, leaving the door open behind him.

"Tem?"

"Hm?" She didn't appreciate the distraction from her delicate task in the least. She never appreciated distraction, and his voice was just about the worst.

"Just leave it down."

She glared at him, turning suddenly toward him to make the effect more pronounced. Using the mirror as a medium diminished her glare, she was a firm believer. In her haste, the hair she had gathered in her hand had fallen.

She groaned loudly, unbelievably annoyed. It was such a menial task, one she had done every day of her life fifteen years! She had absolutely _no_ idea why she didn't seem to be able to put her fucking hair up anymore! It was incredibly frustrating, but she _hated_ it on her neck and in her face and she needed it _gone_.

"I have a thought," he began, rising slowly from the bed and coming to stand behind her. Since she was sitting, he had to kneel as well. Carefully, managing to grab even the more stubborn strands that were today refusing to cooperate, he pinned all her hair to the top of her head. Then, a bit unsure, she could tell, but working his way through things the only way he knew how, he shifted his grip gently so that her hair continued out from his hand. It was a pony tail. _One_ pony tail. And she understood the significance immediately.

Unable to help it, she tensed. Her arm felt mechanical when she lifted it, but she did eventually manage to angle her hand toward him.

He took off one of the four holders on her wrist, frowning deeply in thought, and pulled her hair through the motions with deliberation. Her hair was high, off her neck, not in her face, in one pony tail. She looked like a Nara.

"I don't hate it." She grunted, meeting his gaze in the mirror.

He smirked a bit, tugging once.

"I'm not leaving the house like this."

He didn't say anything, but his smirk was definitely more pronounced. "We'll see."

"Ino?" Sakura called, stepping into the Yamanaka household. "Ino, are you home?"

No noise greeted her at first, so Sakura opened her mouth to yell. "Inooooooooooo! Inoooooo! I-"

Her friend appeared, looking annoyed. "Geez, Sakura, I'm right here!"

Sakura smiled sheepishly. "Hi."

Ino rolled her eyes, smiling despite her better judgement. "Hi. What's up?"

Sakura felt momentarily kind of bad that she and Ino weren't the type of best friends who simply came over to each other's houses to hang out. It wasn't fault of them being kunoichi, and it wasn't even fault of them just having survived a war. It was just them. No, if Sakura just wanted to hang out, she would go see Naruto…

The realization served as a sledge hammer to the subject, and Sakura finally let herself deflate. "Can we talk?"

"Of course." Ino said, eyes lacing with concern.

"Is it Sasuke?" Ino asked immediately, the very moment her bedroom door swung shut.

"Yes- No! It's-" Sakura faltered, huffing. "It's both of them!" She yelled suddenly. All the frustration regarding her feelings, new though they were, bubbled suddenly to the surface. "I don't know what I feel, Ino! Naruto has always been there for me, and he is _such_ a good guy. I know he would always care for me, he's proven that time and time again saving my ass, I know he would do anything for me, as evidenced by the way he chased after his best friend and the apparent love of my life even though he was in love with me himself, and he _is _attractive! He wasn't when we were younger, but he's really grown into that smile- And he's grown in other places, too- He's actually taller than me! And he's so genuine about everything, and he can make me laugh, and even though I want to _throttle_ him sometimes, he… he's never tried to kill me."

By the end, Sakura's voice had taken on an immense sadness.

"Sasuke," Sakura continued before she lost her nerve, "has never been anything but mean to me. A day he didn't call me annoying used to mean the world to me. He has saved my life almost as many times as he has tried to end it. He has berated me and called me useless-" her fists tightened even now, her hatred for the word such, "-and in his grand track record, he is a bad guy. He has murdered people, because he wanted to. He has _never_ nice to me. Not once. Not without gain and not simply because it was the _decent_ thing to do. But, he isn't nice to anyone. After what he went through with his clan and his brother, I can't blame for being upset. But… But look at what Naruto went through! He was completely on his own for the first twelve years of his life, and he walks around like he's the fucking _sun_!" Her voice wavered, emotion tapering off and then coming back with a vengeance as she spoke. "But… when Sasuke looks at me, I feel… I make him smile, Ino."

"It's not your responsibility to make him smile, Sakura."

Sakura's eyes snapped suddenly to Ino's. They were already starting to fill with tears, but her vision was still clear. The look on Ino's face mattered. It was important. Sakura made sure she would never forget this moment.

"What if it is?" Sakura asked. "What if I'm the only one who could ever learn to stand him, the only who could ever teach him to treat people nicely, and then I marry Naruto and I'm responsible for the complete destruction of the Uchiha Clan? Because I couldn't suck it up and-"

"Suck it up and what?" Ino asked sharply, standing. "Suck it up and be verbally abused for a few years while he learned how to be nice to you? Suck it up and willfully enter a likely-to-produce-domestic-violence-charges relationship for no other reason than your absurd guilt and sense of responsibility when it comes to him? _You_ are not responsible for anything that happened to him, Sakura! And you sure as _hell_ aren't responsible for fixing him."

"You used to love him, too, Ino-"

"What I felt for that bastard was not love." Ino reprimanded her sharply. "It was a school girl crush. He was good-looking and smart. That was it. Then he almost killed you, killed Naruto, killed _all of us_, all for the sake of his _fucking_ revenge. I don't owe him a dammed thing because I used to like him. Sasuke Uchiha could die tomorrow, and I would _not_ care!" Ino's voice cracked.

Sakura had known that bringing all this up was likely to make Ino relive some painful memories of her own, but Sakura had decided she was selfish enough to talk to her about it. Not Hinata, who might have said the same thing without being hurt in the process. Not Temari, who had no attachment to Sasuke and would be able to give her an objective answer.

Her only comfort was that she did not place a burden on Tenten.

But Sakura also knew Ino's suffering was nothing compared to hers. "I don't know how I feel." Sakura repeated. "Hurting Naruto is the last thing I want to do. He is so bright and happy, and I could _not_ stand myself if I was the reason he was sad." They both knew it took an awful lot for the Uzumaki to be sad, so the significance was there.

Ino didn't bother wiping at the few tears that had collected on her cheeks. She was still pretty with them. "How does he make you feel?"

"What?" Sakura asked, standing and crossing her arms. "He- I don't know- He's my teammate, he-"

"How. does. he. make. you. _feel_.?" repeated Ino with such significance that Sakura felt as if he'd been slapped in the face.

"He-"

"_How does he make you feel?_" Ino said again, still more intensely.

"He-"

"SAKURA!" Ino shouted, seizing her best friend's arms. "HOW DOES NARUTO MAKE YOU FEEL?"

"_SAFE_!" bellowed Sakura at the very top of her voice. Her tears multiplied in earnest, her body was shaking. "Protected. Loved. Important."

Sakura collapsed into full-on sobs, crying into Ino's shoulder.

Ino held her, patting her back and smoothing her hair. She was sniffing, too. Sometimes the depth of Sakura's ability to care scared her. Most of the time it was a good thing, an admirable thing, but sometimes, like right now, it just hurt.

The door to Ino's room flew open violently. "Sakura! What's wrong?" Inside her doorway stood Sasuke Uchiha, more emotion on his face than either of the kunoichi could ever recall seeing.

His dark eyes lingered over the scene for a moment, inquisitive and calculating.

Ino hated him. She held Sakura tightly to her, filled with the need to protect her friend as best she could. "Get out."

Sasuke didn't move.

"Get _out_!" shouted Ino fiercely. "Get the fuck out of my _house, _you bastard!"

Sasuke's eyes were trained on Sakura. Her sobs were quiet, her shoulders barely shook, but he would have to be blind to miss how much pain she was in. Pain like this sounded like it hurt. The sort of pain he was in if he ever let himself think.

"Sakura, are you alright?"

Ino glared at him fiercely, opening her mouth again when Sakura disentangled herself from her best friend's arms.

"F-fine." Her voice shook, but she was brave. Ino envied her that, the courage it must take to stand up to the person who had hurt her time and time again like she was.

Sakura rubbed at her eyes, red-rimmed and puffy though they were.

"No, you're not." Sasuke scoffed. "Idiot, look at yourself." He indicated the mirror. "You're _obviously_ upset about something."

Sakura's fist went flying into Sasuke's stomach before she registered the action. He fell to his knees and coughed, blood dotting Ino's floor.

"I'll get it." Sakura said mechanically. She walked past the still hacking Uchiha, stepping around him coldly, and when she came back she had rug cleaner. Seemingly competely unperturbed, she scrubbed the rug next to Sasuke gently, this time absolutey no trace of her chakra was to be found.

"Blood stains are hard to get out."

Sasuke struggled to look up, clutching his abdomen.

Sakura didn't meet his gaze, and her tone was cool. "You probably have internal bleeding."

Sasuke didn't move, shock registered all over his too-pale face. There was blood trickling out of the corner of his mouth. Sakura thought he might pass out from the pain. It was impressive he hadn't yet, really.

It took Sakura a few minutes to realize that with Sasuke still coughing blood, her efforts were useless. She stood up, placing the cleaner and rag on a nearby shelf. "Sorry, Ino. I'll come back and clean it later, I promise." Looking so mechanical Ino wondered if it was causing Sakura physical pain to move her body, Sakura knelt and threw her arm around Sasuke.

They went out her door and to the hospital. Ino had tears in her eyes again, so many that she didn't even notice Sakura had gotten the blood out.

Sasuke had done that to her best friend, she was confident. The Sakura she knew and loved would _never_ be so cold. She hated him for that, too.

"You really think I'll become Hokage?"

"There's no doubt."

Naruto grinned widely. "I knew the other candidates were just for show. Can't have Tsuande-baa-chan showing favoritism, even if it is to the Hero of the Shinobi World."

Gaara shook his head, his smile small, but undoubtedly present. "It's not all it's cracked up to be, Naruto." The redhead's face turned suddenly serious.

"What do you mean?"

"You don't have any time to yourself anymore. You have to put the village first. Family, friends, they all have to come second. Your skills, your life is entirely dedicated to the village. You must act with the village in mind. You must be selfless and wise."

Naruto looked visibly uncomfortable. "I know all that." He muttered.

"Even to Sakura." Gaara was sharp. All the Sand Siblings were.

Naruto looked back at Gaara, his eyes narrowing. "I know that."

Gaara and Naruto looked at each other for a moment, and eventually Gaara nodded. "I will help you however I can, of course. I owe you my life, after all."

Naruto took a minute to get back, but once he did he grinned again. He was past denying it now, even if his opinion had not changed. "I'll call you up on that if I ever need to."

"You'll do well. Being young is the new trend among the Kages, ruling for the first time in an era where all Five Great Shinobi Lands are at peace."

Naruto grinned more broadly. "Just a few weeks." He said wistfully.

"I'll try to stay that long," Gaara smiled, just a little. "One of us should be at the other's ceremony."

"I was _training_!" intoned Naruto insistently. "_Training _to get better and master the Rasengan, and learn from Ero-senin, and to master Kurama-"

Gaara laughed. "I know, Naruto." He actually laughed. Just a little, just for a second, but he did laugh. Such was the influence of Naruto Uzumaki, Gaara knew.

Naruto, realizing it was a joke, rubbed the back of his neck. "Geez, Gaara… You need to be more obvious about your jokes."

"I was joking." He said quickly.

"No, not- It's too- Good work." Naruto smiled, fist bumping the Kazekage.

Yoshino Nara had voluntarily given up her ninja career at the age of twenty-one to start a family with the man she loved. She took to the task with gusto, quickly becoming adept at cooking and cleaning. She loved her work. She loved her family, despite how crazy they drove her. She loved her husband, the genius commander who had nearly died on her _again_, despite his assurances that he would do everything in his power to come home, and she loved her son, who took far too much after his father for his own good.

But she was worried.

She loved Temari, and knew she was good for her son. But her son was missing something very vital and very, very cruel. Almost as cruel as the war, in a way. Temari would have to leave, and Shikamaru would have to stay.

She had seen how they acted around each other. What was between them was not temporary and it was anything but flimsy. She was worried what would become of her son when his girlfriend had to leave. She was even worried about Temari when the time came for her to go back to Sunagakure, she liked her so much.

Yoshino didn't see a solution. She wasn't stupid-you have to be intelligent for a Nara man to like you, and Yoshino was firmly above average, thank you very much-but she was definitely not a genius. She could only hope her boy saw something she didn't.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: This chapter includes another M-rated scene. It is also slightly more heavily centered on Sakura, rather than Temari. It also has a fairly large spoiler if you're not caught up with the anime.**

**I own absolutely nothing. All characters and places belong to Masashi Kishimito.**

"Sakura!" Shizune gasped, her jaw dropping. Sasuke's internal bleeding was quickly becoming external, still leaking out his mouth, and in the form of a bruise looming across his abdomen.

"Help me." Sakura said shortly.

Somewhere along the way to the hospital, she had lost her careful grasp on her emotionlessness, and now she was in a full-blown panic. She wasn't crying, but she was shaking, and her face was almost as pale as Sasuke's.

Shizune nodded. "Let's take him to ER 6." It was in the back, where no one would see them. The knowledge sat like a stone in Sakura's gut. No doubt there would be more than a few people who would object to their saving Sasuke's life. There was even less doubt there were a few people who actually attempt to interrupt the surgery. ER 6 was a necessity, in the back of the hospital, for emergency cases, only accessible by hospital staff.

They got a gurney and maneuvered his limp form onto the starched white bed. He gave a pitiful groan, and Sakura almost rolled her eyes. No pain tolerance.

They raced by patrons and staff alike, ignoring all questions fired their way. They scrubbed and finally moved him to the operating table. Shizune cut away Sasuke's shirt, and Sakura took a moment to pull her hair up into a bun. When his shirt was gone, Shizune and Sakura both gasped.

The ugly, purple and red bruise was spread over most of his abdomen. It was clear simply from the size that an organ had likely ruptured, supported by the amount of pain he seemed to be in, judging from his shuddering and pained groans. Sakura gathered her tools while Shizune helped. She wasn't new to surgery, yet even so she found herself still shaking. She knew she couldn't shake. Shake too much and she would cause more damage rather than help. Shake too much and she'd kill him.

Sasuke hissed her name-probably in anger, probably vowing to enact his revenge on her now, right after she saved his life-and then Shizune put him under. Sakura took a deep breath and sliced open his skin.

Four hours. It had taken four hours to repair all the damage her one punch had caused.

Sasuke was in bed recovering, probably going to wake up soon, and Shizune had called Naruto.

Logically, Sakura knew that Naruto would find out sooner or later. If he wasn't already look for her or both of them, then he would be soon. Unable to find them, he would worry, and eventually he would come look at the hospital. Sakura _did_ work here, after all. Sasuke was getting his chakra pathways routinely blocked. It made sense. Sakura knew it made sense. That didn't stop her from bearing Shizune a grudge.

She also knew that, logically, bearing a grudge against the person who had helped her save the missing-nin s-class criminal responsible for the fall of society was probably unwise. But dammit, she was having a bad day. Tomorrow she would be happy and polite. Today, she was going to be moody and awful. Maybe that way, she would finally have an answer. Maybe she'd put Naruto off so much that he would inform her he didn't love her anymore.

"Sakura-chan!"

No such luck.

_Damn_ him. Sakura felt like crying again.

"What happened?!" He rushed to her side, his blue eyes so wide in concern Sakura felt her heart break in two. "Are you okay? What about teme?"

Naruto's eyes briefly looked at Sasuke, who just appeared to be sleeping and therefore fine, and then came to rest on her again. He gently took her hand, unfurling it from where it had been gripping her tricep. With only one arm folded, Sakura's thin security blanket fell away. Tears sprang to her eyes.

"I fixed him," Sakura gasped, struggling to repress her sudden wave of sorrow and self-loathing. "He's okay, Naruto. He's going to be okay."

Naruto didn't seem to react. "What about you, Sakura-chan?" His free hand rested on her face, cupping her cheek gently. He leant toward her, intent on figuring out what was wrong.

Sakura hated that she desired his comfort, that it worked. She didn't deserve any of it. She didn't deserve him. She would only make him unhappy and almost accidentally kill his best friend. She would be too selfish and she would stop him from being as great a Hokage as he could be. He didn't need her. He didn't need her to yearn for his forgiveness, his reassuring touch that _he_, at least, would never hate her.

She forced herself to step back. And almost instantaneously, the darkness all came rushing back in. It stole the air in her lungs, but she didn't feel so much pain anymore, either.

"I hit him," she admitted, crossing her arms tightly again. "I punched him. He made me really angry, so I punched him. And he almost died." Despite her very, very best effort to remain collected, her voice broke on the last word. "I almost killed him." She repeated, self-loathing coating her voice. "He could have died. Because I lost my temper. Because no matter how much of a _fucking bastard_," her voice broke again, harder, quieter, "he is, I have no right to do that to him. I'm sorry, Naruto. I'm so sorry."

Naruto seemed confused. He stepped toward her, smoothing her hair from her face. "He's not dead."

Sakura stared at him. "_What_?"

Her voice was little more than a whisper. It made Naruto smile. "He's not dead. You _didn't_ kill him."

"But I- I almost-"

Naruto shrugged. "He isn't dead. You saved him. You saved Sasuke's life, Sakura-chan. Basically, you can do whatever you want to him, because you'll just save him anyway."

All Sakura's emotions fell away. Her ability to hold her composure, her ability to think, her ability to do anything more than stare openly at Naruto disappeared from her brain. He had forgiven her. Just like that. For almost killing his best friend. He wasn't even mad.

Her conversation with Ino replayed again, the only thought in her head. _Safe. Protected. Loved. Important. _

She'd been staring at him so long and so intently she hadn't noticed that his hands had come to cup her face and swipe, with a gentleness she wasn't previously aware anyone at all was capable of possessing, at her stubborn tears.

"Naruto," She cracked, crying again, and flung herself at him. She wasn't sobbing much past the first gasp, but her body was shaking. Naruto's arms were around her, holding her body to his own securely, and she could feel his chin on her shoulder. He was patient and warm, dedicated to making her feel better. Just as he always had been. And she'd always been looking at Sasuke.

She wanted to tell him. Not that she was in love with him (because she still wasn't sure), not that he was an idiot for forgiving her (even though he was), but that she could see it, now. He was amazing. He was always there for her. He always worked on making her feel better (with varying degrees of success sometimes), and it was quite clear how much he cared about her. She wanted to tell him she could see it now.

Instead, she remained silent. She didn't think she was brave enough to voice it, but maybe she could _act_ on it. So she didn't move. She let him hold her and she let herself hold him, trying to say with the way she didn't let go all the words her tongue would not form. She tried to make him feel everything she couldn't admit to, just by holding him.

She had no idea the amount of time they had been standing there, and when Sasuke grumbled and tried to talk, she didn't move. _Showing him_. Making him understand, even though she couldn't say it.

Naruto, who had tried to move toward Sasuke, looked in surprise down at Sakura. Her arms were still quite firmly around him. His cheeks were a little pink, but he kept her with him when he walked closer to Sasuke's bed.

"She saved you." Naruto told him.

"She did this to me." Sasuke countered, struggling to sit up.

Naruto frowned. "It doesn't make you anything close to even."

Sasuke stopped, shock registering on his face. Then his eyes narrowed. And then he exhaled, his entire body deflating against the wall. "No. It doesn't."

"I did it!"

He didn't respond.

She huffed, turning back to see him reclining quite lazily on his back. "Shikamaru! I did it!"

He cracked one eye open to survey her. "Congratulations."

She hmmphed, getting up and walking over to him. "See," she intoned loudly, turning her back to him so he could see her hair. "I got my hair up again! _Four_ pony tails!"

He shook his head, smirking lightly. "Congratulations." He repeated.

"Look, it's hard to do. You have to get all the little tendrils of hair, and my hair just was not cooperating on top of it being really fucking humid here and my hair being frizzy, so it's actually a really great achievement in the realm of me not being irritated. You should be _thrilled_. Now I won't take it out on you."

He sat up suddenly, attaching his mouth to hers.

"Mmpf," she mumbled half-heartedly, a protest despite her kissing back.

"Shhhh," he returned, placing his hand at the back of her head. "Kissing."

She stopped trying to talk, enjoying the feel of his skilled tongue toying with hers. His lips were insistent and soft, coaxing a true enjoyment out of her that only a few other things in life gave her. He wasn't lazy with his kissing, he just wasn't in a rush. He knew exactly what he did to her with each action, and the thought truthfully made her knees weak. A fact which she likely failed at hiding.

She nipped at his top lip suddenly, soothing her tongue along the area her teeth had scraped.

"Hey-"

"Shhh," she grabbed the front of his shirt, "Kissing."

In no time at all, things had escalated. His shirt had been removed and his pants were the only thing stopping them from going at it again. "I am _really_ glad you're not lazy about _this_."

Shikamaru didn't miss the praise. She could feel his smirk against her skin and she wondered idly, just for a few seconds, if it was possible to be more arrogant. She was sure it was something she had wrought in him, too, by being vocal and honest about what felt good, including his apparent natural talent in the area. The thought of taking him down a few nothces ocured to her, but then his tongue found her collarbone, and she stilled, arching her neck to give him access. _Why_ the damned bone was so sensitive was completely beyond her, but he seemed to enjoy her reaction when he paid attention to it. So he did it quite often.

Her hand rested on his abdomen, sensitive to the heat of his skin and the lean muscle twitching under her fingertips, and his was lazily on the curve of her ass. He was possessive about it, the way his big hand and long fingers rested so unapologetically and what _used_ to be such a private part of her body. His other hand was sliding up her back and settling in her hair.

This is what he did. He always undid her hair before they had sex. It was kind of cute, even if she didn't understand the reason behind-

"No!" She exploded suddenly, jumping from him. The word probably didn't mean much with her breasts bouncing freely and her chest heaving and her lips red and her eyes half-lidded, even through her alarm, but he did sit up again.

"What?" he asked, breathing heavily.

Something, Temari was sure, had been really, _really_ important ten seconds ago. Otherwise why would she have jumped up from him? He was lean, but taut with muscle, defined best in his abdomen, and his chest was heaving like hers. His eyes-it was unmistakable-were filled with lust, bright and brown warm and intent on her. And his erection was large, proud and obvious because of the things she did to him. She was also unsuccessful at hiding how much this fact pleased her.

His eyes narrowed in confusion. He had no doubt seen her slight shudder.

"What?" He repeated. Apparently at this level of arousal complete sentences were beyond his capabilities.

Temari willed her tongue to move. "I… can't remember."

He looked at her strangely. "Then get back here."

Oh, there was one. And it didn't look hard for him at all. Damn his genius brain.

"No, it was important… It…" She gestured vaguely, grasping for words. Her hand found her hair. "Oh!" She walked back to him quickly, pointing threateningly. "Don't take out my hair."

He chuckled-even _that_ turned her on at this point-and offered her a lazy smile. "Fine."

"I mean it." She repeated, not believing him for even a second.

"I know."

"Shikamaru-"

"Temari, I can practically _feel_ how wet you are and you're not even touching me. Get over here, would you?"

The way she leapt on him was too animalistic to be graceful, but the look on his face would be worth falling down in public. She _loved_ surprising him.

"The funny thing," she continued, avoiding his seeking mouth, "is that you always take my hair down." His mouth latched onto her skin, immediately going for her collarbone. She stilled for a moment, then, with an enormous exercise of will, forced herself to continue. "But this time you can't. I'm not letting you. And you probably won't like that, you always get really aggressive in the middle of the sex."

She graced to kiss him hard for a few moments.

"Which I love, absolutely _love_, keep doing that," she gasped when his lips closed around her hard nipple. But she was determined. "But I wonder how you'll react when you can't."

He shoved his pants and underwear down at the same time, surprising her this time. "_God_, you're sexy."

He'd won the battle, but she still had a trick up her sleeve.

He was trying to make her lay down, pulling at her hips and shoulders. "No, you'll mess up my hair." She reminded him, kissing his chest and sternum and then running her tongue along _his _collarbone. "This," she reminded him, "is my idea."

She sat up on her knees, immediately disliking being so far from him, and instructed him to put his hands on her hips. He did as he was told, and then she took a deep breath. It was easy, probably. If it worked with her underneath him, it should also work this way. It just seemed a bit harder to accomplish… At least the first time, when it was new.

But she was brave. And intelligent. And she had guts. In the next second, she sank her heat over his cock in one fluid motion.

"Holy _shit_!" Temari cursed loudly, biting her lip so hard she drew blood to keep back a moan.

"Holy shit," Shikamaru repeated, licking the blood off her lip in a fit of carnal lust. "But move."

She hmmphed and did so, shifting her hips forward, and then back. It was _good_. But it could be better, she suspected. This time, she raised her hips off him, and then sank back down. And that _was _better. But not quite…

"Do both at the same time," he instructed. Even breathless and much too deep to be considered normal, his voice held force.

She did as she was told, shifting forward and up at the same time. When she sank back onto him, his cock brushed her clit even as he filled the space inside her. Temari gave a sound quite unlike any she had ever heard herself make before, a kind of gasping whimper that had Shikamaru gripping her hips so tightly he would leave marks.

She didn't care. She wanted the marks.

She seized his face and attacked his mouth with renewed vigor, moving slowly on top of him even as their tongues battled fiercely. The pace was slow, it was true, but it was quickly building up. He filled her so _completely_, made her so hot, made her _ache_ with desire so much that she stopped trying to hold back her sounds.

Her moans were constant, fueled by his groans and grunts, which were also becoming rapidly louder, and her nails had such a grip on his shoulders it was likely she would leave marks, too.

It was mounting, peaking to the point where the degree of pleasure she was in was insufferable. Her strokes were no longer measured and slow, but erratic and grinding, looking for that release that at the moment seemed so unreachable.

And then he hissed her name and drove up into her when she came back down. Immediately she knew they had found the key, the missing puzzle piece to this position that would make every other moment before this one seem dull and unimportant.

It was only a few more mutual thrusts before she came apart, muscles tight on his cock. Spasms rocked her entire body, and when he finished inside her only seconds later she gave another moan, so loud her own ecstasy echoed in her ears.

Completely spent, she collapsed on top of him. Her skin was sticky and it was unbearably hot now, but she felt so pleasured and so incredibly satiated that she didn't care. She never wanted to move from him again. She never would. He was lazy enough that it didn't matter.

She settled her head into the crook of his neck, silently marvelling that her chest was _still_ heaving with the aftershocks of that orgasm.

"Wow," he commented simply, his breath tickling the back of her neck.

"Really, _really_ good sex."

"Holy shit." He agreed.

Both of his arms were around her, anchoring her to him. It wasn't as if she had even the slightest thought about moving away, but his embrace, but the affection was really nice and it made her valued as more than someone who get him off. He wasn't her first time, but he was undoubtedly her best. He cared about her, and somehow their passionate sex didn't cancel that out. In fact, she was quite sure she would actually be _sore_ after that, which wasn't something she had really ever experienced. Probably it was due to the frequency with which they had had sex today, four times. She knew, laying on top of him and being able _feel_ rather than _hear_ how hard he was breathing, that it was something she only ever wanted to experience with him.

Damn him, he'd made her soft. He'd made her lose to him, then he'd made her smile at him, then he'd made her kiss him, and now he'd made her love him. Fucking bastard.

_How_ he had convinced her cloud watching was just the thing to do for their daily get-out-of -the-complex-so-they-did-something-else-besides-have-sex-activity she didn't know. But it was probably, she suspected, the same way he could smile at her and immediately she would forget that most people's heart rates _were _constantly under eighty beats per minute. The same way she had learned to interpret his subtle facial expressions that made her grin like a lovesick school girl, even if it was only one corner of his mouth. The way he could look at her and suddenly she'd abandon all restraint and be kissing the daylights out of him. Love, maybe, did strange things to a person. Things they would never have done if they were in their right mind.

She gave a world-weary sigh and offered him a glare.

"Hm?"

"Nothing."

The way he looked at her suggested she was an idiot. "Alright, fine, but I'm not going to tell you yet."

He continued to stare at her. He might have been completely still, were it not for her hand gripped in his. The way he walked was curious, too, so fluidly and leisurely that he didn't appear to be jostled at all. It was quite different from the way she usually walked, all quick strides and powerful gait, but she had slowed down so as to walk with him. When had she let him change the way she walked?

She did it again, a long sigh escaping her throat.

"What is it?" he asked again. The fact that he used actual words this time meant he was beginning to worry.

Temari shook her head. "Not yet."

"Temari-"

She _still_ liked the way he said her name, even while he was walking too slowly, even while he was generally being annoying. He still had a nice voice.

"Shikamaru," she stopped walking, tightening her grip on his hand so he wouldn't walk too past her. It turned out to be completely unnecessary, because he stopped almost exactly when she did. Ninja instincts? Or was it just him and his laziness? Or was it just how attuned he had become to her?

Temari fought another sigh. She leant forward and kissed his cheek, ignoring the slight stubble. Rather than move away, as she had been planning to do, she found herself continuing to stand too close to him. Too close for public, assuredly, definitely the sort of thing she should only be doing behind closed doors, in his bedroom, where only he could see. The sort of affectionate, I'm-actually-in-love-with-you-don't-tell-anyone thing that would ruin her reputation.

His dark eyes tried to search for hers, but she shifted just enough to make that impossible. She probably should have been looking at him. He was probably beginning to worry.

She didn't meet his gaze, though. Instead, her forehead was resting against his cheek. She had to look up kiss his cheek, but the result of her looking down was that her head fit almost perfectly into the crook of his neck. She exhaled once more, knowing it was useless to try and hide the sound from him at this proximity.

Kami, she hadn't expected it to hurt so much.

Seized suddenly with an overwhelming bout of pain, she dropped his hands and wrapped both arms around him, her face still pressed into his neck.

It used to irritate her that, since he was both taller and wider than her and therefore generally bigger in every sense of the word, that she could never really pull him to her. It would always look more like her clinging to him, her seeking comfort from a man, always bigger than her and always stronger. At least, that was the perception. The perception used to irritate her. Back when… Back when she hadn't admitted to herself what she'd only been decent at hiding anyway.

She could actually _feel _his confusion in the way his arms went around her, too. In his breath, tickling the back of her neck. Even in the beat of his heart, a bit faster than it should be.

"I was afraid you'd die, too."

She was sure his words were meant to provide some kind of comfort, and even if the assumption he'd taken to form the conclusion required to speak them was a little impressive, she found herself getting angry. Not the _good_ angry, where she could swing her fan and beat people up. But the unfamiliar kind of angry she'd only ever been a few times in her life. The kind with tears.

She felt him tense when they fell onto his neck, too.

To her credit, her shoulders were not shaking. Any passerby would merely think they were in a lovers' embrace, not that she was seeking comfort from a man she hadn't even told she loved because of the very real reality of their situation. She would have to leave. She didn't want to. But she had to, and she would.

But they were still shinobi, no matter their feelings. She could return in a few months and he could have died. Barring that, he could have simply changed his mind. How was she supposed to keep him on her if she wasn't around? There were _dozens _of kunoichi and citizens who fit his stupid little "plan" a lot better than she did. Women who were much easier to be with. Women who he _expected_ to start crying for no good reason.

"Temari." His voice was so damn _deep_. When had his voice gotten that deep? She still remembered his stupid twelve-year-old voice telling the examiner he'd given up. Now he was fully-grown, seventeen-years-old, taller than her, bigger than her in every sense of the word, and he couldn't figure out why she was crying.

Temari took a very deep breath, relied again on the kunoichi sort of thing thing inside of her she'd been repressing violently since they returned from the war for fear that it would take over, and tried her very best to speak in a steady voice.

"This probably isn't appropriate." She began with, surprising herself. "The Kazekage's sister embracing her boyfriend too-tightly in the middle of a foreign village. No sense of decency. Not caring a lick who happens by and sees her in a vulnerable moment. What _would_ her brothers think?"

His arms suddenly left her. She instantly felt cold and alone, almost as instantly as she _hated _those feelings erupting suddenly through her. This being in love business _sucked_.

She began to move back, to pick herself up with that _something_ deep inside of her she had relied on her entire life. And then his hands caught her face.

He had such _big_ hands, too. She had big hands for a woman, but _his_ hands still covered hers effortlessly. They overlapped under her jaw, his fingers touched her hairline and his palms cradled her cheeks. He was so _gentle_ and it was going to be the end of her.

He was looking so intently at her, calculating one hundred different scenarios and explanations in his mind for what had brought on this sudden bout of emotion and weakness from someone he had _thought_ was strong. She was only just forcing herself to meet his eyes. He had a naturally penetrating stare, the kind of thing most people would shy away from. She had always admired it about him, though. She had to work at it for her stare to be intimidating. Her eyes were too pretty. She also had to work to understand people as intuitively as he did, but that one she didn't mind so much. She was a weapon of destruction, not a therapist.

Shikamaru probably could have been a therapist, though. He probably could have been anything he wanted. Even if had he been anything other than a shinobi they would have never met. But then, of course, it wouldn't hurt so much right now knowing that she would have to leave him.

She wanted to know what he was reading in her eyes, in her face. There were only a few tears left, glistening in the corners, but she'd be a fool to claim he hadn't already known she'd been crying. He was _smart_. And they were in-tune. The kind of in-tune that comes from fighting for your lives together that probably never goes away.

"I can't figure out what you're thinking." He confessed. "I don't have much experience with this side of you."

"If it helps," she smiled sardonically, "I don't either."

She knew it didn't.

"Just tell me what's wrong." He all but demanded. "I'm supposed to take care of you, and since I can't figure it out myself, you'll just have to tell me."

"You already know. I don't want to leave."

"I thought-"

It struck her suddenly. He had thought they decided she wasn't going to.

She smiled. "Now it makes sense, doesn't it?"

"Ugh! Why does no one ever look at _me_ like that?!"

The couple looked around, spotting Shikamaru's former teammates without trouble. Chouji was normally hard to miss, and Ino's continued shouting only made it easier to locate the pair of them.

"What?" asked Temari, attempting to school her features back into a mask of control.

"The way he looks at you," Ino elaborated, one hand on her hip and the other gesturing. "No one looks at_ me_ like that, and I want to know why. Am I not attractive enough?"

No one said anything.

"Am I _too_ attractive?"

Again, silence.

"You just haven't found the right person yet." Chouji said finally, patting Ino's shoulder gently. "Look at them- they've known each other for years and it took almost dying to bring them together. They're also from different villages, so maybe you need to go to a different village for a while."

Ino rolled her eyes at Chouji. He had tried, at least…

Temari reached up, covered Shikamaru's hands with her own, and took them off her face. She kept one of his hands, watching as the other slid automatically into his pocket. His eyes were back to watching her, making Temari hyper-aware of everything she did. She refused to look at him, though, concerned that if she did she would start crying again.

"What are you two up to?" tried Temari in a mostly-normal voice. Those who didn't knew her well probably wouldn't pick up on the slight twinge her voice gained after she had been crying. Hopefully.

"Nothing, really," Ino responded, glancing at Chouji.

Chouji offered his own shrug. "What about you two?"

"We were walking around the village." Temari answered before Shikamaru could. "I'm leaving in a few days, so we figured why not."

Talking about it casually did not make it easier, as she had naively hoped.

"You are?" asked Ino, brows lifting in confusion. She crossed the remaining space between them and shot Shikamaru a significant look. "I thought…"

Temari stiffened. Shikamaru noticed right away, replacing his free hand on her hip. It was something of anchor for the suna kunoichi, but it wasn't quite enough to calm her down completely.

"I'm just here until the Reformation Talks finish, which is said to be any day now."

Chouji frowned. Temari could see sympathy shining in his eyes.

Ino was frowning, too, but she had an altogether different look on her face. One that immediately made Temari suspicious. Even so, it was nice to feel something other than dejected. She hadn't previously known she was _capable _of such an all-encompassing sad feeling. Having it replaced was a blessing.

"Got it." Ino nodded.

"Got what?" asked Temari, suspicion raising inside her.

He squeezed. "What are you planning, Ino?" He sounded interested, Temari thought, if exasperated.

"Nothing." She said sweetly, smiling. "Nothing at all."

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto wandered down the hall, looking for Sakura's office. It was hardly his first time in the hospital looking for her office, but somehow he didn't really seem to ever be able to find it. He thought it probably moved, some kind of elusive technique to ward against enemy ninja. But he was hardly her enemy. In fact, they were kind of… he was pretty sure that…

Something. They were something. And it was growing. And important. And he _really_ needed to find her office.

If he didn't find it soon, he'd be forced to make shadow clones and have them frantically look for her in every room on all six floors. And she _probably_ wouldn't appreciate that. Even if it wouldn't be like he was doing it on purpose to annoy her, which she also would probably know. It was just that he really, really wanted to find her, and that every hallway in this place looks exactly the same; so is it his fault _really_ if he can't find his way around an identical-to-everything-everywhere building just because he's been here before?

"Naruto?"

"Naruto?"

"Naruto?"

Geez, this place was really confusing! Not only did everything look alike, but people kept calling his name! How on _earth_ was he supposed to concentrate now?! He whirled around to loudly inform his attacker that he was trying to find Sakura's office.

His blue eyes widened, and then he grinned. _Sakura_ had been saying his name.

She was frowning at him. "Naruto! What are you doing? You look weird."

Naruto laughed, walking back toward her. "I got lost."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Do I have to show you around _again_?"

"I'll just follow you around for a day," he teased, "that way I'll know everything."

"Maybe not _everything_," Sakura smiled, shifting her clipboard to her other arm, "but you should come around one day. I bet it would be fun."

Naruto's smile widened. There was that _something_! The Sakura he'd first met who definitely had no feelings for him whatsoever would have in no way reacted so positively to spending more time with him. Things were looking up, alright. He was going to be the Hokage soon, the War was over, and Sakura was starting to like him!

And they were walking side-by-side! She wasn't just leading him around! Grinning, he folded both hands behind his head. "So how has your day been so far, Sakura-chan? After healing teme, I mean. Cause I was there for that. Did you save any other lives with your awesome skill?"

Sakura smiled at him, blushing lightly. "Well, I caught preeclampsia in an expecting mother, and now she and her baby are going to be just fine. Shizune is with her right now. She specializes in OB care."

"That's amazing!" Naruto gasped. "You just saved two lives!"

Sakura's blush increased. "It's not that big of a deal…

"It really is, Sakura-chan! They might have died if you hadn't been there! You're a hero!"

Sakura ducked her head, tucking her bangs behind her ear automatically. "Thanks." Her voice was meek, but Naruto didn't miss her smile. He grinned again.

Truth be told, Sakura didn't know where she was going. She had been on her way somewhere and then she'd seen Naruto and then he'd started complimenting her and now she had no idea where she was going. He was following her, too, which meant she didn't know where he was going, either. In addition to that, she didn't know why she was carrying a clipboard, why her bangs kept falling into her eyes, and she especially didn't know why she kept blushing. It wasn't anywhere near the first time he'd said such nice things to her, not by a long shot. But that might have gone along with the whole feelings thing she'd yet to figure out.

She sighed inwardly. She just didn't know anything, did she?

That last one seemed the most important, and really how was she supposed to figure that out if she kept ignoring it? Surely there had to be some kind of line between being a selfish, immature idiot who didn't think of consequences and some kind of self-denying sociopath who never felt anything?

She was smart! She could figure this out!

She stopped walking suddenly, determination flashing in her bright green eyes.

Naruto filtered, blinking at her. "What's up, Sakura-chan?"

She didn't respond, though. "Naruto, tell me how you feel."

"What?" he asked, although she could tell by the blush staining his cheeks that he knew exactly what she was talking about. "How I feel about what?"

"Me." Sakura said impatiently. "How do you feel about me?"

Naruto stuttered for a moment. "I mean… I really… like you, and…"

Sakura nodded. "I like you too. Let's go out."

Naruto's mouth dropped open. He stood there, flabbergasted, for several seconds. Sakura couldn't help but a rush of pride that she had the ability to do this to the freaking _hero_ of the ninja world.

But he wasn't saying anything.

She clenched her fist, eyes narrowing dangerously "Is that a "no"?!"

"No!" he exclaimed, suddenly animated again. "No, it's not a no!"

"So you don't want to go out with me?!"

"No! I mean- Yes- I mean-"

"Naruto!"

"Yes!" he shouted, blushing. "Yes, yes I do, I want to go out with you!"

Hearing the words spoken so plainly and so loudly had Sakura blushing too. She sniffed delicately, attempting to regain her composure. "Alright, then."

"It's just that…" Sakura felt her heart drop into her stomach. She could feel the chakra flowing to her fists. Naruto healed fast, right? "Shikamaru says the man should ask out the woman…"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Please, you actually think Shikamaru made the first move? Have you _met_ Temari?"

"Gaara's sister? She's scary."

"Exactly. We are strong, independent kunoichi, Naruto. We stand up for ourselves and we are fierce warriors. We don't need men to do anything for us; it's just that we happen to be heterosexual. I will ask you out if I want to, and I will kiss you if I want to, too. Shikamaru has antiquated ideals that Temari will _hopefully_ get out of his little genius head, and he has absolutely no business spreading them around to other people."

Finishing her impassioned mini-rant, Sakura noticed for the first time Naruto had a goofy smile on his face. She sighed. "You didn't hear anything after "kiss you", did you?"

"Nope!" He said gleefully.

Sakura smiled. He certainly made her feel appreciated, didn't he? "We're going out tonight."

"Ichiraku's."

Sakura stared at him. Naruto lifted one eyebrow, waiting for her to disagree. She didn't. While it wasn't the most romantic place ever, how could she refuse free ramen?

"Okay."

Naruto put his arm around her briefly, squeezing her to him for just a few seconds. It wasn't too forward, she didn't think. It was friendly. Naruto was a friendly guy. For another few seconds, Sakura put her head on his shoulder.

He made her feel good. She made him feel good (presumably). She could do this.

Ino and Chouji had decided to join them for cloud watching. At first, a brief flare of annoyance had sprung up for Temari. She was _leaving_ in a few days without knowing when she'd be back. If his best friends weren't sensitive to that, who would be?

But then she'd noticed Chouji's slight hesitation in joining them. She'd noticed Shikamaru's slight frown. Ino was the only one who seemed blissfully content with the circumstances, and that made Temari even more suspicious. She was planning something, she knew. She just had no idea what.

Temari sat down first, on the edge of the group. Shikamaru sat next to her, smiling briefly at her before turning his attention to his former teammates.

He probably missed them, she realized, just the way she missed her brothers. He hadn't been able to be with them in a non-war situation in seven months, either. If she loved him-which was to say she was pretty confident she did-then she could get to know his best friends for him. She could be selfless and let them in. A little.

Chouji and Shikamaru were laughing about something, and Ino was looking on and smiling. It was the sort of smile Temari thought belonged on the face of a child, too innocent and happy-go-lucky to belong to a war veteran. But Ino had known these boys all her life, so perhaps they were still children to her. Perhaps it was helping her deal.

So Temari took to observing them, quiet for once in her life. Chouji seemed even more merry than Ino, laughing and chuckling and munching away on his chips. He didn't seem embarrassed at all by his huge appetite, nor by the fact that every time he touched Shikamaru or Ino he got red dust on their clothes. It was nice to be a part of something like this, somethign so carefree and easy, even if it was by extension. She could see that these two people were very important to Shikamaru, even if one was too nosy and one ate too much.

She was so lost in her thoughts that him putting his free hand on her knee surprised her. It would be harder for him to lean this way, which meant he'd have to put more effort into sitting up. It wasn't lost on her, and by the expressions on Ino's and Chouji's faces, it wasn't lost on them, either. He wanted to include her.

Temari smiled, too wide for such a simple action, and scooted as gracefully as she could manage sitting on her ass on the ground until she was close enough for him to lean on her. She saw the slight pause in his next words and then felt him shift, actually leaning some of his weight against her now. He could be the lazy one, and she would have good posture. He could count on her here, too.

In return, Temari let her cheek rest on his shoulder. And she tried to participate.

"He isn't even a year old yet," disagreed Shikamaru, "there's no way he was able to remember us before we left."

"Babies are smarter than you think, Shikamaru." Contradicted Ino. "I bet when you go see Asuma-chan again he'll perk right up."

"I've been busy," Shikamaru shrugged only the shoulder Temari wasn't using.

"He's been very busy," teased Temari, earning laughs from everyone but her boyfriend. He looked a bit uncomfortable, but he was still smiling. His dark eyes slid to hers, and this time she was only too happy to meet his gaze.

"Hello?"

Neither of them moved.

"Helloooo?"

"Ino, leave them be-"

"Shikamaru! Temari!"

They broke eye contact, looking at Ino simultaneously. To Temari's astonishment, Shikamaru was chuckling softly.

"Sorry, Ino." He didn't sound sorry at all.

Temari felt her heart do a few somersaults. _Damn _him. Temari laughed briefly too, trying to shake off some of the nerves.

"By the way, Temari," Chouji started, "I wanted to say, you're really scary with that fan of yours. It's not a new thought," Chouji continued, "and I'm sure I'm not the first person who's told it to you. I've just been holding onto it since I was twelve."

This time Chouji was the only one not laughing.

"Your jutsu is incredibly useful," Temari began, "I can't imagine the chakra it must take to get that big."

Chouji smiled pleasantly.

"Wait until you see his butterfly wings," Ino teased, crawling behind Chouji and shaping her arms properly. "He looks so pretty." More laughter.

"This is nice and everything, but it's not cloud watching."

Temari snorted-_loudly_. Shikamaru looked at her sidelong, and then continued as if she hadn't spoken. "So I'm going to get to that. Stay if you want, just don't be a drag." He looked pointedly at Ino. And then, apparently unbothered, shimmied down until his head was resting in Temari's lap.

Despite herself, she felt her face inflame. "I'm not a _pillow_, Shikamaru!" The protest was automatic and weak, no real venom behind her words. Which he undoubtedly knew.

"If I get to be your pillow, you get to be mine."

She hmmphed softly, going to cross her arms when she realized she would likely elbow him in the face if she did that. While he deserved it, she thought, she didn't really want to, all the same. She gave a great sigh and rolled her eyes, leaning back on her hands.

"Can I rest my head on _your_ lap, Ino?"

"No!" Ino snapped, but Temari didn't miss the blush on the other blonde's face. She didn't say anything, though. "We're not dating, Chouji. It would be weird."

"But you've known each other all your lives," Temari teased, "how weird could it be? You guys went through _puberty_ together."

"I said no." Ino affirmed, crossing her arms.

Chouji looked a little hurt, but he only moved to roll onto his back beside Shikamaru, who seemed blissfully at ease.

Ino rolled her eyes again, grumbling under her breath.

Temari smiled lightly, moving one of her hands stealthily to her boyfriend's head. If she were careful enough, if Ino didn't say anything, she would be able to pull it off… She tugged lightly at the hair at the back of his head, almost massaging. With her other hand, she pulled at his hair tie.

She probably wasn't fooling Shikamaru, she knew, but there was a slight chance that he was so caught up in cloud watching and spending time with his best friends that maybe, maybe he hadn't noticed yet.

Temari smirked to herself. She was so close…

"That's it!" Ino shouted suddenly. Three sets of eyes moved to her as she got fluidly to her feet. "Let's go, Temari."

"Where are we going?"

Ino didn't answer her, instead grabbing both of Temari's forearms and hauling her to her feet. Shikamaru's head hit the ground and he grunted, glaring. "Oi, Ino-"

"That kind of hurt," Temari was muttering, "you've got a strong grip."

Ino seemed to recognize the compliment for what it was and nodded once. "Let's go."

Temari shrugged, chancing a look back at Shikamaru. He only looked like he was thinking, though. Temari shrugged. "See you later, boys."

When Shikamaru sat up to question Ino, his hair fell down around his shoulders. "What the- Temari!"

"I'm too far away! I can't hear you!" Temari and Ino left in a fit of giggles, no effort at all made to hide them.

"Sakura has a date with Naruto tonight," Ino informed the circle of girls, "and we're here to help her."

Temari, Tenten, and Ino were sat on Ino's bed while Sakura was occupying the chair at Ino's vanity.

"As well all remember," Ino continued, sounding a bit like a general, "Sakura has said herself that she could actually fall in love with him. So we've got to prepare her. Her make up, her clothing all has to be perfect. She needs encouragement, ladies, advice, and the undying support of her best friends."

No one mentioned the absence of Hinata.

"Are you excited?" Tenten asked, faintly smiling.

Sakura nodded. "It feels like it's been a long time coming, you know?"

Temari burst into a fit of raucous laughter, ruining the mood. "Sorry- sorry. I just know. I know exactly what you mean."

Even Tenten laughed a little. "Five years coming. Isn't that about the same for you, Sakura?"

Sakura shook her head. "I didn't feel that way about him when we were Genin. Not really. I was too hung up on… These feelings are recent. But... they also feel like they've been there for a long time."

Temari nodded sagely. "In my experience, giving in to them is pretty fun."

Ino nodded, giggling suddenly. "_Apparently_ she and Shikamaru have been going at it like rabbits."

Sakura's eyes widened. "Wow, Temari, I never really thought Shikamaru would be into having a lot of sex."

"Oh, trust me, he-"

"Alright, that's quite enough! This boy is like a brother to me. I don't need to hear about him having sex anymore than I've already said!"

Temari smirked at Ino, turning to Sakura. "I'll tell you, Shikamaru does this thing with his tongue-"

"Temari!" Ino threw a pillow at her.

It hit Temari in the shoulder, and Temari burst into another fit of laughter.

Tenten smiled. "We're here for Sakura," she leant toward her pink-haired friend. "Are you nervous?"

Sakura nodded. "Only a lot. We've been friends for so long, I don't want to do anything to… There's a chance things won't work out. And Naruto is one of the most important people in my life, to lose him would…"

"You won't lose him." Tenten smiled. "He really cares about you, and you really care about him. You'll never lose him. Not that way."

Neji hung suddenly quite heavily on the three Leaf ninja.

Temari was looking quizzically at Tenten. "What, did you date a teammate too?" By the shift in atmosphere in the room, Temari knew she had said something wrong. She hastened to backtrack. "You don't have to talk about it."

Tenten shook her head, still smiling. "That's alright, Temari. You wouldn't know. You're not from here."

Sakura and Ino exchanged a look.

Tenten took a deep breath. "Neji and I were… Well, we were about to be… We were together. One night, it just sort of happened. On a battlefield of all places, both of us covered in blood. He swore he'd always protect me, he told me that he loved me, and then he kissed me. He said he wanted us to marry, in a few years when we were a little older. He said he was going to change the Hyuga, and that he knew I would support him infallibly, stand by his side through it all. And then he died."

No one said anything.

"Maybe the Hyuga needs to be changed. He was a branch member, and he had it in his head so much that he was ready to die for a member of the main house, despite his promising career, his talent, and his girlfriend. Maybe Neji will be the catalyst that changes things, or at least the catalyst that opens everyone's eyes."

The three girls were silent, staring unblinkingly at Tenten. To share something like that, Temari reasoned, must take so much strength. Tenten had lost someone, and here she was, unable to tell hers that she loved him.

"Am I being insensitive?" Sakura asked. "Asking Ino to gather everyone when you're mourning for someone you loved? I'm sorry, Tenten, I wasn't thinking-"

Tenten shook her head. Her volume had not yet to raise much beyond that of a whisper, but she had the three girls' instant attention every time she moved or spoke. "No. I'm glad to be here, Sakura. I'm glad you can be happy. I'm glad things can go on without him. I want to be a part of this."

Sakura reached for Tenten's hand and squeezed. Ino put her hand over theirs. Temari smiled.

"That's right," Ino said softly, "we kunoichi stick together."

Moment over, Ino went right back to business. "Temari," Temari looked up, "as the only one of us actually in a relationship, I thought you could provide some good advice."

Temari snorted. "Shikamaru is the exact opposite of Naruto. I don't know how much advice I have to offer."

The girls nodded in agreement. "Well," Ino began, "the opposite of what you did should work then, right?"

Temari shook her head. That was some bad logic. "My situation is totally different. We'd been dancing around the issue for years. There was always attraction, it was just unspoken and ignored. The war put everything in perspective, and, to be blunt, Sakura, it doesn't seem to be that way for you."

Sakura stared at Temari. "How did you…"

"The way you talk about him. It doesn't seem new."

Sakura looked down for a moment, swallowing. "It's not."

"I don't know either of you that well, but Gaara really likes Naruto, and that speaks volumes to me. He must be a really good guy, not as a shinobi, but as a person, you know? It seems to me that if he likes you the way you are now, then that's what you should do. Be who you are."

"Those three years really gave you a lot, didn't they?" Ino muttered, half-teasing and half-impressed.

Temari shrugged. "Different life experience, that's all."

"It's just that," Sakura started, glancing at her feet. "It's complicated. It's complicated in a different way than yours is, Temari. There's Sasuke. I made Naruto make an impossible promise just to keep me happy. I've always felt something for Sasuke, and Naruto knows that. He's been there through every step of the way, watched me fall in love with Sasuke, and then…"

"And then?" Ino prodded. She wanted to hear Sakura say it. Sakura needed to hear _herself_ say it, dammit.

"I don't want to hurt him." Sakura whispered. "I'll never forgive myself if I hurt him. This might all be a big mistake. I might still…"

Sudden sadness gripped Ino's heart. "Sakura…"

"But he's good for me. He's really, really good for me. And I want to make him happy."

"It's not supposed to easy," said Tenten, "easy is the last thing it should be. How do you know it's worth doing at all if it doesn't take everything inside of you?"

Temari grabbed Tenten's hand impulsively, her grip tight. Though the other kunoichi looked at her curiously, Temari didn't say a word. Tenten probably had no idea how true her words were for _two_ of her friends, and Temari couldn't make herself say it. Tenten was pretty wise, too.

"Naruto isn't stupid," added Temari. "He's hyperactive and an idiot, but he isn't stupid. I'm sure he knows all that, Sakura." She paused, then gave the girl's shoulder a squeeze. "If he knows what's good for him, he'll be happy to get even one date with you."

Sakura smiled at Temari. "Actually, I was wondering…"

Temari retracted her hand, suspicious once more. What was it with these damn konoha kunoichi and their plotting?!

"I was wondering if you would come too, Temari, you and Shikamaru. Just so things aren't so…" Sakura left the sentence unfinished. She probably wouldn't have been able to find the word, anyway. Awkward, serious, heavy, clear, none of them worked to encompass all the emotions Sakura must be feeling.

"A double date." Temari groaned. "I am going on a _double date_."

Sakura squealed happily and threw her arms around Temari. "It'll be fun! You'll see!"

"And Tenten and are going to do something tonight, too!" Ino decided, looping her arm through the weapon mistress'. "We'll have just as much fun!"

Tenten smiled, Ino and Sakura glared at each other, apparently one had to have more fun than the other, and Temari groaned.

"Troublesome."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Tada! The anticipated date scene between Sakura and Naruto is here! But I did say this was going to explore NaruSaku and SasuSaku. I am incredibly on the fence with who I ship in that triangle, even given the events of Chapter 693, and in a way this fic is helping me figure it out.**

**And I've got to say, guys, I'm leaning toward NaruSaku. I can't see SasuSaku happening without Sasuke going through some major changes. That being said, I think Sakura still cares deeply for him, even if she doesn't want to.**

**This chapter also revolves heavily around Sakura's feelings. Poor girl. She's in a tough situation. As a result of that exploration, and my own experiences with panic attacks, this is my favorite chapter so far! I really hope that scene isn't rushed. I really want you guys to get a feel for what panic attacks are like, so I put a lot of effort into that part. Even so, the point of this chapter is for Sakura to explore her feelings. She comes to at least half a conclusion. And Shikamaru and Temari discover they make a good team even outside of battle.**

**Please enjoy!**

"Temari's going to kill me." Shikamaru groaned.

"Oh, come on!" Naruto looked in disbelief at the other shinobi. "How mad at you can she possibly be? Doesn't she love you and stuff?"

Shikamaru shrugged, but the tips of his ears were pink. "She won't appreciate the surprise."

Naruto smiled. "Make it up to her. You two are having sex, right?"

"How did you-"

"Kiba has a really strong nose."

Shikamaru glared in annoyance at nothing in particular. He hadn't even _seen_ Kiba today, so how did he even get a smell, or whatever it was? Could the scent really be that strong? They had had sex four times today, so maybe… Shikamaru forced himself to stop thinking about the capabilities of Kiba's impressive sense of smell. He didn't want to know.

"So since you've having sex, you can just have more sex and then she'll love you again."

Shikamaru chose not to say anything one way or the other so as not to incriminate himself. With his luck, Temari was likely right around the corner, already whipping out her lethal iron fan to whack him over the head. She had tried to tell him it was affectionate some time back, he could recall, but he hadn't believed her then, and he wasn't any closer to believing her now.

The way she kissed him, though, that he could certainly believe to be affectionate. He was smiling lightly when Naruto yelled suddenly.

"I am so ready for this date!"

Shikamaru stuck his finger in his ear, trying to let Naruto know he was being too loud. It was too subtle, though, for the blonde shinobi kept yelling.

"I have been waiting to take Sakura out and show her how much fun she will have with me for five whole years, Shikamaru! Do you even understand how excited I am right now?"

"No," drawled Shikamaru, "in fact you seem completely calm."

Naruto stared at Shikamaru for several seconds, and then got it. He laughed shortly and shook his head, playfully shoving his friend. "Is this your first date with Temari too?"

Shikamaru thought about it for a moment. "Yeah. First official date anyway."

"And you're not nervous?"

Shikamaru snorted a bit and shook his head. "Not in the slightest. We're already together. There's nothing to be nervous about."

Naruto nodded sagely. "That's why it'll be so nice to have you guys around. You're already settled and together, and obviously in love with each other. It'll take the pressure off me and Sakura-chan so we can just hang out. On a date. Together." Naruto sighed happily.

"So," Shikamaru attempted to bring his friend back to reality, "where are we meeting them?"

"Ichiraku's!"

"But Temari doesn't know to meet Ichiraku's."

"Why not?"

"Because I haven't seen her in a few hours…"

"Oh…" Naruto frowned. "Well, where is she?"

Shikamaru sighed heavily. "I don't know."

Naruto scoffed. "That wasn't very smart of you, was it, Shikamaru? To tell me you'd go on a double date with me and then not even know where your girlfriend is?"

Shikamaru stared at Naruto, hoping against hope that he was joking.

It didn't appear he was.

"I know where she is," Shikamaru started again, deciding being annoyed would be too troublesome, "right there." He raised an arm just over half way and pointed. His girlfriend was walking with Naruto's soon-to-be girlfriend.

Sakura, who had one arm weaved through Temari's, waved. Temari smiled.

Shikamaru felt his heart thud dramatically, but apart from giving a quick sigh at how strongly he felt about her and how that was sure to cause him some trouble at some point in the future, he found himself smiling back.

"I've never seen him smile like that before," Sakura whispered, as if afraid the boys might overhear, though they were more than two hundred feet away. "He must really love you."

Temari nodded, attempting to maintain an air of superiority and not show how the word flustered her. "Obviously," she said back, a bit louder than Sakura. "Naruto looks like a love-struck idiot, by the way. It's probably a good thing you brought me along."

Sakura sighed, sounding just a bit too happy about it to fully convince Temari she didn't want to be here, trying to go on a date with Naruto. Who was with Shikamaru. Right when he and Sakura were supposed to meet up. Something clicked in Temari's brain.

"Oh, brother."

"What?"

Temari lowered her voice. "He brought Shikamaru. You brought me. You both had the same idea."

Sakura's eyes narrowed. "I don't think I like that…"

What, it was fine when she was doing it, but now that Naruto was also nervous, it wasn't allowed? Temari rolled her eyes and extracted herself from Sakura's arm. Sakura flailed to get her back, but Temari danced out of her reach.

She confidently walked across the rest of the space to her boyfriend and kissed him thoroughly. Shikamaru was the one to pull back, a smirk already on his lips. "Troublesome woman," he greeted, "did you miss me?"

Temari swatted him. "You've got a big head."

Sakura had caught up by this point, much more cautious than Temari had been in her greeting. "Hi, Naruto."

Still, he smiled quite largely at her. "Hi, Sakura-chan."

Temari weaved her arm through Shikamaru's, deciding that that was more suitable for public. Holding hands was fine too, but it did have a certain air of togetherness and being a couple that weaving arms seemed to lack. It was a bit more professional, just the tiniest bit less in-your-face. Shikamaru didn't complain, and since Temari rather liked resting her hand on his lean, weirdly-attractive-only-because-she-was-leaving-him-in-a-few-days forearm, she kept their arms as they were. He had nice muscles, definitely there, but subtle. He could certainly be strong when he wanted to be, as she knew.

She grinned largely up at him. "You missed me, too." She informed him.

He nodded once. "It was strange being able to do whatever I wanted without having to fear attack by a giant, iron fan." The fact that he seemed to have forgotten her fan was broken was something she let slide. She was being positive tonight.

Temari snorted. "Don't get used to it."

Sakura, from Naruto's either side, was frowning heavily at them. "I see what Ino means."

"About what?" hummed Naruto, who had yet to look away from Sakura since spotting her.

"The way he looks at her, it's so romantic. So decidedly un-Shikamaru. I wouldn't believe it if I weren't seeing it with my own eyes." Sakura looked back at Naruto, eyes widening slightly. "Are… you okay?"

Naruto nodded, blinking. "Yeah, yeah, I had something in my eye."

"Okay, well, glad it's out." So much for things not being awkward. Maybe she'd been a fool to be optimistic. But then, it was a trait she'd undoubtedly picked up from Naruto, from being around him so much, which is also what had led to her current situation.

Sakura took a deep breath and tried again. _Give him the benefit of the doubt. He's a good guy._ "We saw Tenten today."

"Yeah?" asked Shikamaru, looking briefly to Sakura. "How was she?"

"She was good," answered Sakura. "She said she was happy for us."

"She and Ino are hanging out." supplied Temari.

The mood was a little somber, a little quieter than was probably ideal for a first date the rest of the walk. It wasn't far, though, and pretty soon they had arrived.

Shikamaru took longer steps in quick succession, using his height to get there before everyone else. It was a move he used sparingly, so Temari regarded it with the proper amount of attention. And then she gave him a look, just to make him think he had to defend himself and that she _wasn't_ actually enjoying this immensely because she _might_ have been a bit of a fool- but only when it came to him! And that sort of helped, right? That sort of made it forgivable? If it was only him?

To be frank, the way he was looking at her made her heart stop, and it must have been that look on her face that gave him the courage to proceed. He was too good at reading her.

"I have to be a gentleman about this, girlfriend. What would Sakura think if Naruto was a better date than I was, and we're officially together?" He shook his head, muttering something like "it's not _the_ most troublesome thing ever, though". He made a show of selecting Temari's stool for her, making sure it was clean, and then invited her to sit.

She did so, valiantly fighting her grin.

And then he set a napkin over her lap, making a show out of smoothing it and making sure it was "properly in place". Now fighting a losing battle against her laughter, she settled for giving him a look that said very plainly "I know you only did that to feel me up".

In response, he only grinned. He didn't deny it, which mean it was true. Temari heaved a huge sigh, wondering when, if ever, she would get her facial expressions under control.

Naruto attempted to do the same thing for Sakura, but she had already seated herself on Temari's other side. Naruto scrambled around to sit next to Sakura, unsure why she hadn't just followed him and taken the stool he was getting for her, when a rather large gentleman sat next to her instead.

Naruto wavered, looking to Shikamaru. However, Shikamaru was speaking with Temari in low voices, quite oblivious. So Naruto decided would have to try his luck himself. "Excuse me, sir, could you sit over there?" Naruto was impressed with his manners, but the rather large gentleman was not.

"I'm already sitting here."

"I know, I can see that, it's just you're sitting next to my… We're on a date, see…"

The rather large gentleman shrugged. "Not my problem, kid."

Temari seemed to be giving Sakura a look that said "what is wrong with you?" but Sakura was resolutely avoiding everyone's eye. She appeared to be deeply engrossed in the menu.

Shikamaru made an annoyed noise, more than a little glad he'd never fallen for Sakura. She was attractive and strong, but she could be flighty. Too troublesome for him to deal with. Still, he kind of admired Naruto for seeing past that really annoying quality.

Naruto was still standing, unsure what to do, and looking more and more uncomfortable by the second.

"Leave it to me, everyone, I've still got common sense!" Temari's sarcastic enthusiasm rang loudly throughout the ramen stand. She stood and walked around to Shikamaru's other side, ignoring Sakura's look of panic. "There you go, Naruto, have my seat."

Naruto shot Temari a grateful grin, apparently oblivious to Sakura's panicked expression.

Shikamaru smirked at his girlfriend. "I knew I liked you because you were smart."

"You like me for a lot more reasons than that, Nara."

"Unfortunately."

She swatted him again, narrowing her eyes playfully. "Don't think that you're safe just because we're in public, Deer Man."

He was failing spectacularly at hiding his amused smirk, and only the arrival of old man Ichiraku to take their orders saved him.

Naruto didn't appear to have lost his spunk, for which Shikamaru also admired him. Sakura wasn't very good at this, apparently. She hadn't spoken to Naruto other than to say "hi" yet.

"Remember, ojii-chan? You said you'd give me free ramen if I ever brought a girl here?"

He nodded, laughing. "Sakura-san?

Sakura grinned nervously. "Yeah…"

"Naruto finally wore you down, I see!" He laughed again. "Alright, free ramen for you and your friends. Kami knows you've given me enough business over the years that I can afford it."

Temari smiled briefly at Naruto, hooking her ankle around Shikamaru's. He glanced at her, raising a brow. She shrugged.

"Woman, you're going to…" He sighed, not bothering to finish his sentence. He put his hand on her knee, shielded by the stand in front of them and the tarp behind them. He was only seventeen, and while he may not have been up for another round, he was still delighting in being able to touch her wherever and whenever he pleased. Temari was undeniably curvy, yet attractively muscular, and she always smirked at him like they were playing shogi and she thought she wa about to win. She never had won, not yet at least, but it always made him rethink. She challenged him at every turn and and constantly kept him on his toes. It was impossible to be bored around her.

Never one to fail a challenge, he suspected, she took his hand and moved it up her thigh. He was well into dangerous territory now, but this game was electrifying. He inched his hand toward her inner thigh, rubbing lightly with his fingers. He saw Temari take a deep breath, closing her eyes briefly to adjust, and wondered what her next move would be. He could think of twenty at least, but which would she do?

She crossed one leg over the other and took his hand securely in her own. Well, he certainly hadn't expected that. Still, he squeezed her hand, not bothering in the slightest to hide his smirk.

"It's going to be difficult to eat with one hand, Shikamaru. I hope you're prepared."

He rolled his eyes. "You're right-handed. You're not going to last."

"Is that a challenge?" Her eyes flashed. Heloved that look of hers.

He nodded once. He opened his mouth to say something else when he felt Naruto poking his arm insistently. "What?" asked Shikamaru bluntly.

"Geez, Shikamaru, can you, like, tone it down?"

Shikamaru blinked. He was here supporting his friend, right… He glanced at Temari, wondering if she had overheard. She met his gaze, so he assumed she had. "Right." Shikamaru grunted, but he still kept hold of Temari's hand.

"You hungry, Sakura?"

Sakura shrugged. On the way over, she was sure she would be able to eat comfortably and not worry about anything at all, since she and Naruto knew each other so well, but now there were so many butterflies swimming in her stomach she doubted she'd even be able to swallow water.

"Well, I'm starving." said Temari, letting go of Shikamaru's hand to adjust one of her ponytails. "You'd be surprised how hungry sex makes you."

Shikamaru coughed uncomfortably, but didn't refute her statement.

Sakura giggled, just a little, but it was enough. Temari met Shikamaru's gaze again, wondering if he understood or if she would have to explain it to him later. But geez, she had already done three things for the benefit of Naruto and Sakura, and wasn't this _her_ date too?

"Here's your ramen!" came Ayame's voice, expertly carrying four big bowls at the same time.

"Itadakimasu!" The four shinobi said in unison, slurping happily at their noodles. Temari wasn't that big into ramen, but the ramen here was _good_. Gaara still hadn't eaten here, despite how the number of times Naruto had told him he needed to, and it was going to be fun bragging about yet another of her trips here. Being the Kazekage kept one very busy, apparently.

Temari wondered idly if Naruto would be too busy to come here when he was Hokage, and then concluded quickly he would find a way for his favorite restaurant.

Things were actually semi-peaceful. Shikamaru's knee was touching hers, Sakura didn't appear to be having a freak out, and Naruto was eating quite blissfully. This wasn't all that bad, as far as double dates went.

"A bowl of tonkatsu ramen. Please."

Temari didn't particularly register the voice that had just sat down on her other side. It was a stranger. She was on a _date. _What did she care who sat next to her?

She did, however, register the complete change in Ayame's demeanor. She had only been here a few times, but every time Ayame had been kind and friendly. Now she was cold and plainly pissed off. Temari looked to her left, eyes widening when she saw who was next to her.

"What do you think you're doing here?" The words left her mouth before she could even think to stop them. Shikamaru's hand gripped her knee swiftly.

Sasuke stared in Temari's direction, but not at Temari. Or Shikamaru. And though his eyes passed briefly over Naruto, it was plain he was staring at Sakura. The medic nin looked very flabbergasted, so it made sense, but things were probably not that simple.

"We have the right to refuse service to anyone." Ayama glared icily. "Get out of our ramen stand."

Sasuke met her eyes. "Fine, I won't eat. But you can't make me leave if I haven't done anything."

Ayame bristled. She glanced at Naruto, who offered a helpless shrug. Ayame glared at him, too, and then disappeared with a huff into the back.

"Ignore him," muttered Shikamaru, resuming his food. He may have been acting annoyed, but Temari could plainly see the tense set of his shoulders.

She ate too, eager to finish and get out of here. There had to be _some_ other place for them go after this, right? Konoha was even bigger than Suna, so logically there should be. But how many of those places could Sasuke find them at? Temari recognized easily that she and Shikamaru could simply walk out of here scot free, but she felt a sense of loyalty to Sakura and Naruto now that she had fought with them side-by-side.

She had seen, and been told a little bit about, what they had gone through when it came to the Uchiha, and she considered them both her friends. And she wanted to help them out. She knew Shikamaru quite possibly had the worst opinion of Sasuke here, having almost lost his best friend in a failed mission to retrieve him, but he was loyal to a fault, as well. He wouldn't leave either.

It was going to be a long evening.

There was silence for a few more blissful seconds before Sasuke's stomach rumbled loudly. Temari glanced at him, distaste written all over her face. The only good thing she could say about him, other than a biting comment that his hunger pain proved he was still human, was that he had changed his ridiculous outfit. He now wore all black, pants and a shirt, the Uchiha crest emblazoned proudly on his back. He was staring straight ahead, to his credit. He didn't _appear_ to be plotting to stab anyone else...

Naruto offered his bowl to Sasuke, his mouth set in a grim line. "Have some."

Sasuke stared at Naruto for a long moment, and then took the bowl.

"Here," added Sakura, getting up and handing him her own bowl. Temari knew it made more sense that way, because she would've had to reach around two people, and though Naruto had to reach around three, her arms were significantly shorter, but Temari couldn't help but feel that Sakura had made a grave mistake.

Standing before Sasuke, it seemed like she was frozen. Emerald on onyx, neither of them were blinking. Temari might have called it sexual tension if they were strangers, if she didn't know better. But there were too many things between them for it to ever be that simple. The tension they shared could never be given one title and be called done. Temari didn't envy Sakura. She might still live in a different village than her boyfriend, but at least she knew who she loved.

Sasuke took Sakura's bowl, too.

Sakura gave a perfunctory nod and then knelt down to Temari's level, speaking right in her ear. "Can I talk to you?"

Temari heard the unmistakable crack in Sakura's voice, and nodded. She brushed her fingers across Shikamaru's shoulders as she left.

"So, you and the Sabaku girl?"

Shikamaru glared coolly at the black-haired shinobi, not speaking.

"Yeah," Naruto tried weakly. "Her name is Temari. She's Gaara's sister."

"I remember." Sasuke said. "We fought once."

Shikamaru's eyes widened slightly. He hadn't known that. He deigned to grunt. For Naruto.

Naruto took it as a good sign. "I bot beef, and I think Sakura-chan got chicken.

"... What?"

"The ramen!"

"Right." No one said anything. "It's fine."

"You sure you wouldn't like to chidori one of the bowls? Maybe leave one on a bench?" Temari was getting to him. Shikamaru didn't care.

They hadn't gotten very far away at all before Sakura had lost it completely.

She was hyperventilating. Faster and faster and faster until her sobs came out sounding like choked breaths of air. If she kept this up, she wasn't going to be getting any oxygen at all. But she couldn't stop.

"Sakura!" Temari implored, trying to keep quiet. She grabbed her shoulders. "Sakura, calm down!"

But she couldn't. She couldn't. She loved both of them for entirely different reasons and she could not pick. She would not pick. She didn't want to hurt either of them and she didn't want to be with either of them and she _couldn't _be with either of them because that would hurt the other and she was in a fucking _impossible_ situation!

"Sakura!" Temari called again, losing her already-tentative grip on her volume. "Sakura, _breathe_."

She couldn't. She was going to hurt them. She was never going to be able to look either of them in the eye again. She was never going to be able to go to Ichiraku's again. Now both of them, both her boys, Ojii-chan, Ayame, Shikamaru, Temari knew she loved them both. They knew how disgusting she was. How pathetic. How the fact that she was unable to make a choice earlier would have saved everyone all this awkwardness and heartbreak. Because she was too weak.

"Sakura, you have to calm down!"

She couldn't. She was a worthless, awful human being, putting the two people she cared for most in the world-one of whom she shouldn't even care for at all-through pain because of her stupid inability to make a decision. She was ruining their friendship by having feelings for them both. She could do nothing to help them. Being around them was just hurting her. But she _loved_ them both and wanted both of them in her life and there was no doubt she was selfish enough to keep on going like this.

Temari knelt down in front of her urgently. She shook her shoulders. "Sakura!"

The sobs were wracking Sakura freely by this point, and she fell to the ground, crying hard and holding herself.

"Sakura!" Temari shouted, quickly losing her grip. She had absoultely no experience with this sort of thing. In Suna, if someone had a moment, the thing to do was walk away-walk away, leave them to it, and never mention it again. If the situation absolutely demanded that you address it, you were to be harsh and unforgiving. _You're a kunoichi; act like it_.

But Temari didn't want to. Sakura really seemed like she needed someone right now, a friend to listen, person-to-person. Not shinobi-to-shinobi. Because that's the way things were done in Konoha. You were allowed to care.

But she still had no idea what to do. Staying calm hadn't worked and yelling seemed to do even less. She was out of options.

"I'll be right back!" Temari told her, squeezing her shoulders and then sprinting back to the ramen stand. "Shikamaru!" She yelled at the very top of her voice. It wasn't more than thirty seconds back to Ichiraku's, but Temari already had a clock going in her brain. How long was it wise to leave Sakura alone? How long could her body handle staying that way?

"What is it?" He asked, jumping up.

"Come with me!"

He sprinted with her back to Sakura.

"Do your-"

"Kage mane no jutsu!"

His shadow reached Sakura's in seconds, and Shikamaru took exaggerated deep breaths to try and help calm her down. Despite the situation, Temari was a little impressed she didn't even need to explain it to him. It probably wasn't the time to comment on his sex appeal, though.

Sakura was still crying, but at least she was breathing more regularly. She was starting to freak Temari out with the force of her pain. Temari knelt again, trying to regain the control in this situation that may never have been here at all Shikamaru was normally the level-headed one, but he was focusing on Sakura. That meant Temari needed to do something, needed to help somehow. But how?

Seconds later, Naruto and Sasuke came racing out from the ramen stand, concern written plainly on both their faces.

"What happened?" they demanded at the same time, glaring at each other and then looking to Sakura, who was still shaking. Naruto moved toward her just the same time as Sasuke did.

Temari saw her chance. "No." She said firmly, jumping to her feet and holding her arms out in front of Sakura.

She was smaller than both boys, barely bigger than Sakura, but she was more stubborn than any of them put together.

"What do you mean 'no'?!" exploded Naruto.

"Move." said Sasuke menacingly.

Temari glared. "No. You two are the problem here. You need to leave her alone for now."

"Sakura-chan, are you okay?" asked Naruto, trying in vain to see around Temari and check on Sakura with his own eyes.

Sasuke wasn't saying anything, just standing there brooding, using Temari's slight movements to get glimpses of Sakura. She was in so _much_ pain. He hadn't know it was possible to be in that much pain. Not with your parents still alive.

"I'm warning you." said Temari again, drawing herself up to her full height. Even without her fan, she was a force to be reckoned with. And they both knew it. Heroes of the Shinobi World or not, she would beat them to a pulp. "Get out of here. Sakura needs you to get out of here!"

She could tell that had gotten to them. "If you care about her, you'll leave."

She saw the hesitation written plainly on both their faces. One more push was all it would take.

"If you care about her_ at all_, get out of here!" Maybe it was her volume that did the trick, maybe it was the venom in her voice, or maybe it was just that they both cared about Sakura that much, but they left. They went in opposite directions, angry and confused.

Shikamaru released the jutsu, sighing, and Temari dropped to her knees, touching Sakura hesitantly. "They're gone, Sakura. It's just Shikamaru and I."

Sakura looked up, her pretty face tear-streaked and splotchy. She sniffed. Temari took it to mean 'thank you'. "You're welcome."

Shikamaru came closer to where they were and offered Sakura a tiny smile. "The fact that you're this upset means you're not a bad person."

Sakura stared openly at Shikamaru for a few moments, and then shakily nodded. Temari shook her head. Kami, he was brilliant.

Temari sat on the ground, leaning against Shikamaru. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Sakura looked around briefly as if to say "we're in the middle of the road".

"I don't care. Do you care, Shikamaru? He doesn't care."

Shikamaru shook his head at the same time.

"I…" Temari winced. Her voice sounded so broken. "I love them both."

Temari hadn't been prepared for such an answer. By the shock on Shikamaru's face, neither had he. For once, two of the most sharp-tongued Shinobi alive today had nothing to say.

But they didn't leave, either, and that was better, to Sakura.

Sakura stopped crying somewhere around the hour mark. She was feeling drained and empty, but she was still conscious of the swirling ball of pain inside of her. No longer did she feel worthless and pathetic, but she undoubtedly was in a tough situation.

Shikamaru and Temari had stayed with her the whole time, not speaking to her, and only speaking to each other in harsh whispers Sakura couldn't be assed to hear, anyway.

"I love both of them." She repeated, watching as two pairs of eyes flickered instantly toward her. "Naruto and Sasuke. Sasuke and Naruto. But I don't…" Sakura took a deep breath. "Love them the same way."

Shikamaru nodded.

"Well, doesn't that make it easier?" asked Temari bluntly.

Shikamaru knew it probably wouldn't, but maybe…

Sakura shook her head, smiling thinly. "No."

There was silence again. Temari and Shikamaru were looking at each other intently, communicating silently again. Maybe if she had fought more side by side with either of one of the boys like they had with each other, she could do that too. Maybe she would know more about her feelings. Instead, she'd been left behind again. Like always.

"I can't believe I had a panic attack."

Temari smirked, just a little. "I can't even imagine, loving those two idiots enough to have a panic attack. You're something else, Haruno."

"That's a compliment." Shikamaru interpreted, catching Temari's hand in his as she reached to hit him. "And she's right, Sakura. You must be feeling… I can't even imagine, either. But I know I wouldn't be able to feel all that without exploding. The fact that you only cried is nothing short of incredible."

"You could stand to call me incredible more often." Temari muttered, earning a little smile from Sakura. But she still meant it. Mostly.

"You're an incredible amount of trouble." replied Shikamaru without missing a beat.

This earned a full-blown (if quiet) giggle from Sakura. "You two," she laughed, "are _so _entertaining."

"Excuse me?" asked Temari tersely.

"You bicker like an old married couple, trading insults left and right. But at the first sign of something she can't handle, she goes to get you. And then you two lean into each other like…" Sakura laughed again, a bit hysterical. "Like you don't even have to think about it. You two are so…" Another bit of laughter, more hysterically. "You two are so in love."

If Sakura weren't so hurt right now, Shikamaru had no doubt Temari would have something to say. As things were, she took a deep breath and laughed a little herself.

"You're right," Temari admitted, "you're exactly right."

Shikamaru was more than a little surprised. Maybe he shouldn't have been, considering everything that had happened today and in the past few days, but he was. She was facing away from him, too, so he couldn't even see her face. This was such a drag.

"Okay," Sakura said some time later, jarring Shikamaru from his thoughts. "I'm ready to go home."

"We'll walk you," said Temari, weaving her arm through Sakura's. Shikamaru got up too, albeit more slowly, and began to walk behind them. He still had too much thinking to do to participate in the conversation, but he did manage to keep up with them.

"I'm at Shikamaru's if you need me." said Temari, hugging Sakura tightly. "I don't care what time it is."

"Yeah, I don't either." He added without prompting. He was genuinely concerned about Sakura, and he didn't much like the idea of her being on her own. She had parents, but they weren't even ninja anymore, and probably didn't know much of what Sakura was dealing with in regards to her two former teammates.

Sakura smiled weakly. "I will. I think I just need to rest, though. That should help."

"Good night," said Temari, watching Sakura's face until the door closed.

Temari took a long breath, exhaled slowly, and then turned to Shikamaru expectantly.

He knew what she was waiting for, but regarded her boredly all the same. "What?"

Temari smiled to herself, taking his hand. "Alright, that's fair. Not yet."

Sakura wanted nothing more than to take a nice, hot bath. Preferably for a few hours and preferably with no interruptions. She had begged and begged her parents for a nice tub, and they finally had agreed that if she paid for it herself, they would hire the contractor. She had only got it last week and had already used it three times. It was the best gift she had ever given herself, and she was nothing short of thrilled to climb into her tub again.

She didn't know why she ever imagined it would be that easy.

"Sasuke!" she yelled, glaring at him. "What are you doing here?"

He was leaning against her light pink wall, sticking out like a sore thumb with all his black clothing. Her window was open, answering her next question. She cursed, making a mental note to keep it closed from now on.

"I wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Well, I'm not." Sakura snapped. "So you can go ahead and leave."

Sasuke didn't move.

Sakura sighed. Ignoring him didn't seem like a feasible option, especially not with the plan she had in mind for a soak, so she decided to confront him again.

"What?"

"You're not okay." He told her. He paused for a long moment, and just when she opened her mouth to speak again, he was louder. "You expect me to leave knowing that?'

He was throwing curve balls at her left and right. "Yes." She answered, deciding honesty would do for now. "We both know you don't care about me."

Sasuke made an angry sound, crossing the room in four fluid motions so that he stood right before her. "I said you were annoying. I never said I didn't care about you."

"Trying to kill me more than once got that message across very clearly." She took a step away, moving so that it was his back to the door.

He stared hard at her, his onyx swirling with_ something_. "I wasn't… I wasn't in my right mind."

Sakura lifted a brow. "Last week, when I wasn't in my right mind, I put my bra in the dishwasher. I didn't try to murder my old teammate." Her glare was frosty, and surprisingly, she was starting to feel better. Maybe what she needed to do was release her feelings instead of keeping them all bottled inside.

He kept her gaze. "You're…" he sounded pained, "a better person than I am."

"So is Naruto." She fired back. Maybe it was wrong of her to throw that in his face, but _damn _it felt good.

"I know."

Well, she hadn't expected that.

"Good."

"Then why didn't you stay on your date with him?"

_Dammit_, she forgot how smart he was! Just like that, she could feel the tears start to build again. _Dammit, dammit, dammit!_ She wanted to kick something. Tear something apart. Give him another seriously-debilitating injury. Out of ideas, she grabbed a pillow and she screamed.

Breathless, she threw it back onto her bed. She met his gaze bravely, face tear-streaked and eyes bright. "You know why."

"Even now? After the things I've done?"

"Apparently." She scoffed, crossing her arms. "It's not my choice, believe me."

"So your crying… You were shedding _more_ tears for me?"

Sakura made an annoyed sound. "Do you want me to draw you a picture?"

He took a quick step toward her, causing her heart to thump in her chest. "Don't."

He stopped. "Don't what?" His voice was challenging.

"You know what."

"You're going to have to stop saying that if you want me to remember this."

Another challenge. He was daring her to tell him to stop, to go away, that she didn't love him and didn't want to be with him.

"You," Sakura started strongly, holding up her hands and shoving him backward. "Are a horrible person. You are a murderer. You have tried to kill me and Naruto and Kakashi-sensei multiple times. You went on a warpath of destruction and revenge that ultimately resulted in you losing everything good in your life. You lost yourself."

Sasuke stood unblinkingly before her.

"I love," her voice broke, just a little, "who you were. Who you could have been. It's obvious you're not that person anymore."

"What if I was?" Sasuke forced the words out before he could take them back. "What if I was that person again? What if I was trying to be good again?"

Sakura swallowed thickly, biting the inside of her cheek to hold back her tears. "I don't believe you." She choked, still meeting his gaze.

Before she could stop him, before she could push him away, Sasuke closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around her.

"I _am_ trying, Sakura." He vowed. "I am trying to be better. I have been a monster for four years, and it's hard to change. It's not going to happen overnight. I don't even really remember who I used to be before I went to Orochimaru. I just remember you. You and Naruto."

Sakura didn't raise her arms to embrace him back. She just stood there, and let him hug her.

"When was the last time you hugged someone?" She found herself asking. "You're so rigid and stiff."

She felt him pause. "I don't know. Before my family died."

It kind of broke her heart that he hadn't hugged someone in ten years. "Relax," she advised him, "it's not as scary as killing Orochimaru. It's easy. It's how you tell someone you love them."

It was suddenly glaringly obvious that her arms were not around him.

"Sakura," he whispered, hugging her so tightly to him she found it hard to breathe. Her cheek against his chest was nice, though. He smelled really nice. His arms were strong around her. But they were arms that had killed thousands of shinobi, of course they were strong. He had killed good people, bad people, people with lives, families. He hadn't cared. He was definitely strong.

But he was dark. He was so dark.

He was nothing close to a sun.

She pulled back to tell him to get out when she caught his gaze. Liquid onyx. Eyes so dark they sent a shiver through her, eyes that weren't as cold as she remembered them, as she told herself they were. The lines of his face were defined and masculine. He had high cheek bones, not so much as even a freckle to mar his cheeks. She wondered idly how he had avoided scars in such a big area.

Her eyes fall back to his, and she saw that they were staring at her mouth. She swallowed hard.

"Sasuke." She shook her head, pushing gently on his chest. She had no idea what she was going to say, but her tongue seemed to know. "Be my friend."

"Your friend?" He demanded, like the notion was ridiculous.

Sakura smiled. "I hug my friends."

He nodded once, curtly.

"Good night." She took a step back from him, raising a brow, demanding him silently to say it back.

He ran a hand through his hair. "Good night." He jumped out her window, gone. Sakura followed, closed it, and locked it. And then she slumped down onto her bed.

Shikamaru and Temari were right. She was strong.

But there was still something else she needed to be brave for tonight.

"So tomorrow," started Temari, "we're going to see my brothers. I haven't spoken to Kankuro since he broke my fan, and I need to hear him apologize again."

Shikamaru raised a brow. "Alright."

Temari beamed, happy he hadn't contradicted her. "They're growing on you, aren't they?"

He shrugged, pulling his shirt up over his head. Temari regarded him carefully, scrutinizing his face. He wasn't one to show a lot of facial expression, so she had to pay attention. She never broke her gaze, even as she unhooked her bra through her shirt and tossed it in the general direction of his hamper, which she firmly believed was only there at all because his mother had made sure of it. Her kimono was gone too, also tossed at the hamper.

She thought about stopping there, matching his toplessness with her toplessness, but it was _cold_. She could already feel her body reacting to the temperature, and that meant two things: 1. she really needed to get in the fucking bed 2. she needed a shirt. She padded over to his dresser and withdrew a fresh t-shirt, smiling apparently at nothing when it fell to her thighs.

While she took out her hair, she looked at him imploringly, daring him to say something about her sleeping attire choices.

He merely got into bed.

She crawled in after him, content tonight to lay next to him instead of on top of him. It was warmer next to him, really, and she got part of a pillow this way, a completely stationary, soft-and-without-bones pillow.

Surprising her, he rolled toward her and kissed the top of her head. At the same moment, his hand found hers.

She probably shouldn't have blushed so much from that, especially not compared with the other sorts of things they'd been doing together. And definitely not where he could plainly see, facing her, in his bed, with less than an inch of space between them. But it was sweet, really, really sweet.

"That was scary today," Temari commented. It probably shouldn't have made her feel so safe and loved to simply be laying next to him, his forehead against hers and their bodies so close she didn't care to figure out whose legs were whose. The intent way he was watching her didn't help, even if it was the way he always watched her.

He nodded. "I've never seen Sakura break down like that."

"I didn't know what to do." She admitted softly, playing with his fingers. "I tried to tell her to calm down, but she just wouldn't. So I went and got you." She paused here, smiling breathlessly at him, feeling like a fool. "And you knew what to do without me having to tell you." She shifted, kissing his forehead. "That damn brain of yours."

"It was obvious enough." He muttered. "You formed a strategy instantaneously and came to get me. I picked up on it. I wasn't about to go into that situation without a good reason. It..." he seemed to take an extra moment to think about his next words, "it was a good strategy."

She smiled lightly, and they fell into a silence soon after.

But only for a moment.

Shikamaru smirked, so slowly that could plainly see his confidence expanding with every centimeter. "They're growing on you, aren't they?"

His question held impossibly more weight than hers. Hers was teasing, light, and basically untrue. His was heavy, an observation, and completely and utterly fact. And he knew it, too.

"You've really got to stop that."

"What?"

"Using my own words against me."

"It's a compliment."

She wrinkled her nose at him, flicking his chest where her free hand was resting. To his credit, he didn't flinch.

"What's your goal, Shikamaru? Getting me to fall in love with you, with your village, with your parents, will your friends- What are you trying to do?"

"To be frank," he started, and it gave her an absurdly warm feeling that she was rubbing off on him, "I don't intend to let you leave."

Temari tried very valiantly to ignore the rapid pounding of her heart. Still, her voice was breathless when she answered. "Now I've made you possessive. Good grief."

"It was probably for the best. You are pretty hot."

She snorted, kissing him quickly. "I'll have to make my own show of dominance soon." She told him, teasing her fingers along his abdomen, caressing and flitting along his skin without a care. "Everyone will want to marry the Strategist of the Shinobi Forces who took control mid-battle when the Intel Division could not be reached."

Marry. She realized five milliseconds after the words were out of her mouth. She had said marry. She had earlier indirectly admitted she loved him and now she had indirectly admitted she wanted to marry him. She was a mess. All because she was in love with this idiot.

"Not yet." She heard him whisper, turning onto his back.

She stayed on her side, hand clutching his.

"Naruto?" Sakura called, crawling in through the open window. "Naruto, are you home?"

"Yeah!" She heard him call from the kitchen. "Eating!"

She smiled to herself and walked across his apartment to the kitchen. "How are you?" She asked, leaning against the doorframe.

He swallowed and smiled at her. "I'm good. How are you, Sakura-chan?"

Whether he intended his words to be laced with double-meaning or not, Sakura still heard them. "I'm better." She walked toward him and sat on the table. "Temari and Shikamaru really helped me out."

Naruto nodded, and though she could tell he was still smiling, it wasn't nearly as bright.

"Naruto," Sakura said again, "I want to tell you something."

Naruto pushed away his ramen and stood up, his blue eyes searching and concerned.

"Well, several somethings." Sakura amended.

He nodded, simply standing. He didn't rush at her; he didn't demand anything from her; he just waited.

"I love you." Sakura admitted. "But I love him, too." She let the words sink in for a moment, intending to be brave. And then her face turned red and her mouth opened again. "And I don't know what kind of love that is, the kind I have for him or the kind I have for you. I know a little bit more about his, because he came to see me tonight. I loved who he used to be, who he could have been. What he meant to us, as our teammate. The person who saved my life. The person who let me comfort him in one of his weakest moments. I love a memory, and I lack the ability to discern between memory and reality."

"I love who you are today, right now, in front of me. You're incredibly brave and you're fiercely kind. Everyone admires you. You're going to reach your dream of being the Hokage. I helped you get there. I love that about myself, honestly I do. I love the you who met his parents and let them go-twice. I love the you that fought Pain, Obito Uchiha, Madara Uchiha, Sasuke Uchiha, and in the end never ended up killing one of them. I love the fact that you eat too much ramen, that you're too loud and don't really know when to shut up, because I don't really know, either. I love the fact that you support me and try to be there for me as best you can. I love that you persevere when anyone else would have quit long ago. And I love that you love him, your best friend, even after all this time."

Sakura swung her legs. She hadn't been meeting his gaze for a while, but she could still feel him looking at her. She took a deep breath. She had to continue.

"When Sasuke came to see me, I was shocked. I didn't expect him to try anything so soon. But that's one of the main differences between you two, Naruto. You don't push me. He said he was going to try to be a good person again, but not to expect anything too soon, that he couldn't change overnight." Sakura laughed, and it wasn't bitter. "He said he was going to try be who he used to be, for me. And then he hugged me."

At last, Sakura found the strength to look up. "He doesn't know how to hug."

"He-" Sakura stopped. The look on Naruto's face was foreign to her. She didn't know how to interpret his slightly-widened eyes, his frown, and the way he didn't seem to be blinking. He almost looked scared.

"Naruto?"

Without a word, Naruto pulled her into his arms. He was holding her tightly, just as tightly as Sasuke had, and Sakura immediately felt love and compassion and protection roll over her. His arms were just as strong as Sasuke's, and he hadn't murdered anyone for his power. And he was so warm, just like the sun. A light in the dark.

Sakura made a happy sound, her arms around him now, too.

"You love me?" he asked, not breaking the embrace.

"I do." she told his shoulder. "I really love you."

Neither of them spoke for a moment. They just held each other.

"I wanted to tell you all this because I thought you deserved it. You have stood by my side for years, Naruto, even when I treated you _horribly_." She moved on too quickly for him to object. "You have been my friend, my confidant, the person I trust over everyone else. And I wanted you to know everything. I saw that I hurt you today, Naruto. That my tears hurt you. That I felt the need to run from you, that I couldn't cry to you and let you comfort me. And right now, I know it hurts you that I love him."

Sakura exhaled and pulled back, moving her hands to his chest. She didn't push him away, though. When she looked up at him, her eyes lingered over his mouth. Full lips, slightly tanned skin, whisker marks from the Kyuubi still inside him. Blue, blue eyes that made her think of sunny mornings in the summer time. When her eyes met his, she found he was already looking at her.

He was leaning. Sakura knew she could stop him. She knew he would stop. She knew she should probably stop him. But she didn't.

His lips met hers, and Sakura instinctively opened her mouth a little.

The kiss was slow and tentative and only a few seconds long. But when he leant back, Sakura found that her heart had leapt into her throat. She chose not to say anything. Words were not enough at this moment. She hugged him again, nuzzling into his neck.

She loved them both. Maybe it was okay.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Sakura has always struck me as a very impulsive character. I think all of Team Seven is impulsive, though to be sure in very different ways. I've loved Sakura from the start, and it's really fun playing her as my second main narrator. She does some things Temari would never do, simply because she thinks too much.**

**Anyone see Chapter 693? I've had this chapter written up for about a week, but reading that chapter caused me to have to go back and think about my Sasuke. Writing about post-canon as canon is still coming out is hard.**

**I also really like this chapter. I got some Team Seven action in, though admittedly it was biased, and my favorite scene comes at the end with Shikamaru and Temari.**

When Temari woke up the next morning, she was seized with the same urge she had been having every morning for a while: to cut off all her hair. She had seen other kunoichi with short hair, and she liked it on some of them. She would probably miss her hair, at least a little, but it would be nice not to have to worry about it for a while. Her hair was naturally frizzy and impossible to tame, so she was always put it up. Lately, though, it had gotten to be a pain doing the same thing four times. She never used to mind, and she had the distinct feeling that a certain _someone's_ influence was the main reason behind her new opinion.

It wouldn't be such a big deal, really, if it wasn't the traditional Nara thing to do. Yoshino didn't do it, but that was her own choice. Maybe she used to. Maybe it was only traditional for Nara men. Temari didn't care either way. She wanted it out of her face. And four ponytails was too much work when one could accomplish the goal just as well.

She reached across Shikamaru, knowing she wouldn't wake him up, for a ponytail holder. She got out of bed, grabbed boxers of his, and went across the hall to the bathroom. After running the brush through her hair a few times, she scrutinized her reflection.

It was _possible_ that she over-exaggerated about her hair. It wasn't that bad, really. Horrible to have it down for missions, but not so bad on days like today. Even so, it tickled the back of her neck and she kept having to blow it out of her face. She just didn't have the patience for it.

It felt strange not to have to try to estimate what was approximately one-fourth of her hair and instead grab all out of it, and while it took her a few tries to get all of it, rather than one-third or three-quarters, she managed. In one ponytail high at the top of her head sat her hair. Off her neck, out of her face, and very distinctly not her usual look.

She made it back to her boyfriend's room mercifully unseen. When she found a position against the wall to watch him from, she found that it was much more comfortable to lean against things with only one bundle of hair sticking out from the back of her head. Shikamaru would have an interesting reaction, she was sure.

As would her brothers.

She swallowed. They probably weren't gung-ho about this relationship enough to be okay with her looking like a Nara already. If she was going to abandon her village and marry him, all in the span of less than a month, then the least she owed them was keeping her hair style the same.

Worrying her bottom lip, she let herself slip into her thoughts.

Leaving her brothers was a problem, and leaving Shikamaru was a problem. Technically speaking, she had been with her brothers for twenty years, so that sort of made it Shikamaru's turn. She sighed. But this wasn't a game or a strategy, nothing that could be won by either playing fair or playing dirty. It came down to a choice. Who did she love more? Who did she want to be with more? See every day, have meals with, go on missions with? Who would she miss more?

Anger gnawed at her suddenly. If everyone she loved could just _stay in one place_, that would be fucking fantastic!

But her brother wasn't just her brother. He was the Kazekage. He had a duty. She had a duty too, but she could probably get away with shirking hers. But Gaara-he had a life-long commitment to Suna. Temari had thought she loved Suna, but maybe not enough. Gaara obviously loved it more, Kankuro too. Temari had let herself be swayed by another village while pursuing a position she had taken on in the pursuit of helping Suna, because it had made sense. Because she hadn't minded Konoha. Because she knew some people.

She had grown to love Konoha, too. She loved the seasons, the grass, the clouds in the sky. She loved the trees most of all, though. There weren't trees like this where she was from. They had dead, brown grass, sand, dirt, the occasional bush, and cacti. But here, they had _trees_. She knew she would never be able to learn all the names of all the different that grew-_indigenously_-in Konoha, but she loved them all just the same. And the Nara Clan owned an entire forest.

_She_ could own an entire forest, one day.

Anger gone and wistfulness in her belly, she smiled.

Still, Suna held charms that Konoha did not. It never managed to be as loud, for one thing. They were a smaller village by statistics, though not proportionally, but as a result there were fewer people. It was understood in Suna to be where you were going by ten, eleven at the latest, and few would be travelling on the streets again until five. In Konoha, the streets were constantly packed with civilians and shinobi alike, intermingling as if the latter couldn't just kill any civilian any time they wanted. There was an air of responsibility in Suna Temari had missed. Determination, competition, mutual understanding that quality demanded effort. There were more stars in Suna, simply because it was smaller, but few people could name them at all. They were proud in Suna, and strong, weathering dust storms and droughts and heat waves the likes of which would make shinobi from any other village afraid to go outside.

But they smiled in Konoha. They laughed. They told jokes, even while on missions. People hugged. People were friends, not merely comrades. People fell in love.

Temari wondered if she was more Leaf now, than Sand. She laughed, she told jokes, she hugged, all while on missions. She had friends. She had fallen in love.

She wondered if, when she thought about it, her brothers were her only true reason for staying in Suna.

Of course, she hadn't considered the technicalities yet. Switching villages was easy by no man's measure. Especially not for an Ambassador, and especially not for a bodyguard of the Kazekage. She would likely retain her rank, but it was equally as likely she would have to prove herself for a long time. With the War, it was possible that the Sound Invasion, aided by the Sand, would be forgotten-or perhaps just over-looked-but there would always be some who would not forget. The loved ones of people she had been ordered to kill who still looked at her with hatred in their eyes.

She could handle it. She was strong.

She was in love. She had a feeling that alone was enough to get her through anything.

Why, then, had she told him she was leaving?

The question stumped her until a new one came along. But did he truly believe that she was? He knew very well if she was determined to do something the most he would be able to do was come along. But he told her point-blank he would stop her. Perhaps that was what he had been doing since they had kissed: changing her alliance, drawing her further and further into love with him with every second spent together. Perhaps it had been his plan for a few years now. He was patient enough. It wouldn't honestly surprise her.

But they still weren't in love. They hadn't said it to each other, they had merely heard it from everyone else. Was it not for them, just them, to decide if they were in love? Wouldn't it be right to correct everyone and say 'we're not there yet'? And if it was, and if it was such a logical, easy conclusion to reach, why hadn't he done so himself?

Even if he was, why hadn't he told her?

_She_ had kissed _him_ (regardless of the mad dash), and she knew that took away a little from his "manliness" ideals. She took his hand (sometimes) and she was on top when they had sex (sometimes) and she continued to kiss him in public. She knew well of his ridiculous and chauvinistic ideals, and as a result she also knew they did not come from a bad place. The man, she was sure he would say, should tell the woman that he loved her first. It was a mark that she did truly love him that she was willing to wait for him to say it.

Of course, he probably knew all this and was playing some sort of game with her, testing her patience and having his fun.

Last night, she thought she recalled him saying something about "not yet", alluding to what she had referenced twice before, which he had of course figured out (he _was_ a genius). If that was case, surely he was planning on telling her soon.

But waiting had never been her strong suit, and damn him he probably knew that, too.

Suddenly, she decided he was taking too long to wake up. It was way before he usually liked to get up, she knew, she'd known for years, but she was an early riser-by habit, but sleeping until nine was unusual for her just the same. If she let him, he probably would keep sleeping until eleven! Or twelve! Kami forbid he ever sleep into the afternoon!

She flicked his ear. "Wake up."

He didn't stir.

She narrowed her eyes, flicking his forehead. "Shikamaru."

Still nothing.

She thought about yelling at him. She thought about jumping on him and screaming. She thought about kissing him. They were all good options for different reasons. And she certainly knew how he'd prefer to be woken up (if at all).

She reasoned that if she didn't get him up, his mother likely would, and that was something he would enjoy even less than her harshest method to get him to wake up. In the end, just because his hair was down and the blanket had fallen to his waist, she kissed him.

It wasn't immediate, and it definitely wasn't a large movement, but he did respond. It was perhaps the laziest kiss he had yet to give her, but it got him moving. She smiled against his mouth, getting a little carried away. She nipped softly and then drug her teeth back across his lip, the sensation sharp and slow.

And then she pulled back.

At last, he stirred, grumbling. He shifted slightly, and for a moment she thought he was going to wake up. And then his breathing evened out.

She huffed "Shikamaru!" and pounded her hand on his chest.

The shock had him sitting bolt upright, gasping to breathe. Her gaze was unimpressed as she looked at him, one eyebrow raised.

"Geez, woman!"

She folded one leg underneath her. "You weren't waking up."

"I was asleep."

She opened her mouth to retort, but he cut her off.

"For the record, there are better ways to wake me up."

"Don't tell me you've got it in your head that your girlfriend's going to wake you up by blowing you?"

Shikamaru stared evenly at her, but his face reddened.

"Kami!" Temari snorted, shifting back. "Don't tell me, Kiba?"

Shikamaru didn't say anything.

"I knew he was bad news when Kankuro liked him." She took a few moments to roll her neck, satisfied when the cinks clicked out. When she opened her eyes again, he was staring weirdly at her. "What?" she asked, narrowing her eyes. "I haven't even washed my face yet-"

"It's your hair. Not your face." He rolled his eyes, planting a quick kiss on her cheek. "It's… different."

Temari met his gaze evenly, and now it was her turn to blush. She felt her chin raise, her old stubborn pride surfacing again. "I know."

"Was it on purpose?"

Trust him to jump right to the point. She didn't say anything, making a noncommittal sound he surely would be unable to interpret one way or the other.

But he did love disproving her, because he smirked.

Temari opened her mouth to berate him when he cut her off. It only vaguely occurred to her that she should be angry at him for it.

"So what happened yesterday? You never really told me why you were so upset." Lazily, his hand drifted to her cheek. His palms were calloused and truthfully he didn't look completely comfortable doing it, like he wasn't used to such intimate touches, but she saw the worry in his dark eyes.

"I owe you an explanation." Temari responded, nodding smartly. She took his other hand like it was a possession of hers instead of something she was being loaned and slid her fingers into the spaces in between his. It felt like an anchor. It felt like something she shouldn't be doing, something dream-like and ridiculous. But it was her reality with him.

"It would be nice. It's not often I can't figure something out."

She smiled at him, sounds of laughter escaping her. Kami help her. She was in deep. But he wasn't arrogant about his intelligence. If anything, he regarded it as a burden, and not understanding something was akin to failure for him. She leant into him, bumping her forehead with his. It kind of hurt, but he didn't move away and Temari felt this insistent warmth creep into her body that suddenly made it so much easier to tell him about a weakness.

"First of all," she started, opening her eyes, "I really hate you sometimes."

His smile told her he understood. Hate was the last thing she felt for him.

"I…" Temari laughed again, but shorter, and much less nicely. Not sarcasm, not pity, but a kind of combination that left an acidic taste in her throat. "I don't usually… do that." She swallowed, trying to be nicer. "It hit me all of the sudden, that I would have to leave… leave you, leave Konoha. And that I've actually… I love it here." She paused, scrutinizing his face. "That might not seem like a big deal, I know." Her gaze left his eyes and went to his shoulder. Positively scrawny at fourteen, now he had some definite definition. He wasn't huge in the shoulders, but she wouldn't want him to be. Her free hand traced the indent of his muscle, the end of his collar bone. "But… Shinobi are supposed to be loyal. Above all else, they serve their village, they die for their village." Her voice took a suspiciously self-deprecating tone. "They don't suddenly fall in love with other villages. They certainly don't fall in love with shinobi from other villages, if they ever fall in love at all."

"I just kind of feel like… I fucked up somewhere." She met his gaze again, lips pulled faintly around her teeth. "Probably when I told Gaara to send me to help you kill the Sound kunoichi."

He probably hadn't known she'd volunteered for the task. It probably didn't matter now. It had been three years, after all.

But wasn't that their story? A collection of years and moments that had ultimately ended her up here, in his bed, defecting her home village for a boy? A young man, whatever, but a boy. She had let a boy into her heart, let him change her mind and her perspective-and worst, her heart.

"I don't mind." He told her, a curious kind of expression on his face that had Temari reacting more slowly.

"What do you…"

"If you hadn't fucked up, you wouldn't be here right now. And I'd still be pining for someone I saw every few months who wouldn't give me the time of day. She was stronger, more important, a better ninja, practically royalty."

Temari's grin was unfailingly huge. "Are you saying you've had sex dreams about me?"

He coughed, the uncouth question surprised him. But it turned into laughter, the kind of low, raspy chuckling she'd come to expect from him. The kind that she, sitting so close to him, couldn't help but feel rather than hear. "Definitely," he told her.

"And?" she asked, mouth turning into a smirk.

"And what?" He was grinning now, baiting her.

"How do I measure up to your imagination? You _are_ supposedly a genius."

He shook his head.

They leant forward at the same time, soft kisses that quickly turned heated.

"Better," he broke away after several moments, his voice deeper and impossible heated, "definitely better."

She grinned and kissed him again. "So does the hair look bad? It's just that using four ponytails feels so time-consuming, and I've got important things to do. I've had enough of a break and it's time I get back into training. I've got to go find an Ironsmith and get my fan repaired, start talking to Tsuande-sama about citizenship, I told Sakura I'd help her out at the hospital with patient flood control, they need some muscle, she told me, and she can't do _everything_ by herself, and then I wanted to go to lunch with you and actually finish my meal, and your mother asked me to go to the market-" she said me, but she meant _us_ "-and-"

He kissed her deeply with no warning whatsoever. When he pulled back several minutes later, her head was swimming.

"I probably can't convince you to stay in again." It was a statement. The fact that it was a statement made her smile.

"I already gave you four more stay-in days than I would have liked to have, lazy. That's quite a feat in itself. My brothers would be relentlessly mocking me if they knew."

"Then what do they assume you've been doing for a week?"

Temari shrugged. "I try not to think about their thought process. Too slow. Too one-move-at-a-time."

He leaned to kiss her again.

"Well," she touched her lips to his briefly, and then pulled back, "time to get up."

His groan was comical. She laughed loudly and dressed. After a few moments of deliberation, she put her hair back into four ponytails. She didn't think she was quite ready for the statement one would make yet.

As she descended the stairs, Temari nearly ran into Shikamaru's mother.

"Yoshino!" Temari cheered in a loud voice. "Don't worry. I already got him up. Can't do anything about the glacial speed he gets dressed at, though."

Yoshino's surprise melted off her face, and in its place was a smile glowing with warmth and approval. "Temari-chan, I knew I liked you from the start."

"Please put that right there, Sasuke, just like that."

He set it down and she beamed at him. "Now this," she continued, picking up the heavy box of medical bandages with one hand, "should go over here…" She set it down on the other side of the room, unable to notice that Sasuke required two hands to move the second box.

"Alright," Sakura took a few steps back and put her hands on her hips to admire their work. "That looks pretty good."

She waited half a beat for him to say something, but he didn't.

"Tsuanade-shishou is still recovering; this will be a nice surprise for her when she's all better. She always complains about how no one ever bothers to organize the medical supplies." She turned to smile at Sasuke, pleased he looked a bit happy himself. "Thank you for your help."

He nodded. "It wasn't that bad."

Sakura scoffed. "That's because we haven't gotten to the gurneys yet. Or the patient-moving. None of them like being rolled around the narrow hallways, and even fewer of them don't have anything to complain about."

Sasuke's little smile faded. "Why am I helping you again?"

"Because your alternative was helping Naruto fill out paperwork."

"Right."

Sakura chose not to mention the other two reasons that occurred to her, that he was being her friend again and that he was trying to be a better person. Good people helped out other people when they asked, and often without prompting. But that was too much, too far-not for him, but herself. If she were honest with herself, being alone with him like this, with things almost _seamlessly_ exactly how they used to be was harder than she liked to admit.

Except this time, she wasn't the one pining after him. (Mostly.)

He was being too quiet again. She worried about him when he was being too quiet. So she said the first thing that came to mind.

"So a woman came in yesterday, eight months pregnant and concerned. She had been feeling awfully, but I guess the other medics she had seen had just told her she was nervous because they couldn't find anything wrong." Sakura's eyes lit up, her smile grew. "But I believed her. Women's intuition and all that. So I ran more extensive tests," she paused for dramatic effect, "and then I caught her preeclampsia! She and her baby would have died if I hadn't believed her! She's going to be just fine now!"

Sasuke nodded, not much emotion at all on his face. "Good job."

"Yeah…" Sakura trailed off, catching her forearm in her opposite hand behind her back. "Yeah, come on."

She made her way through the door and back out into the corridor, trusting he was right behind her. "We'll start with the bottom floor first-working from the bottom up is the best way to get anything done, you know. We- Temari!" Sakura waved broadly, jogging a little to smile properly at her friend. "Thanks for coming!"

The two hugged briefly. Sakura didn't miss Sasuke's scowl. "Where's Shikamaru? I assumed he'd come, too."

Temari shook her head. "He went to talk to Iruka about teaching again. Why he likes it, I'll never know." Temari's eyes found Sasuke for the first time, and Sakura tried to ready herself. "You've got something on your back, Sakura. Black, soulless, bloody-"

"My friend." Sakura cut Temari off firmly, her friendly smile just a little dangerous. "Sasuke Uchiha. You've met him, haven't you, Temari?"

Temari studied the other kunoichi for a few moments, never once looking at Sasuke. "Alright," Temari started, and for just a second Sakura thought she was conceding, "where are these bodies I'm supposed to help you move? You said you needed some muscle, Sakura, so my reputation's on the line here."

Sakura sighed a little. It was middleground. She would take it.

"So, Temari-"

"Temari-_san_."

It took everything in Sakura not to turn around and gawk at Temari. Girl had _guts_. Still, she could practically _feel _Sasuke's eye twitching. She made to keep looking ahead and keep her firm moral high ground, but a quick impulse went unchecked. She turned back around, and indeed his right eye _was_ twitching. Sudden elation filled Sakura, and she giggled.

Maybe he hadn't changed that much, after all.

"Temari-san," muttered Sasuke with the rage of no less than ten thousand suns, "I wanted to ask you-"

"Ask me what?"

"How. you. are. today.?"

Temari's smirk was wide. "I am very well, thank you, Sasuke. And yourself?"

Sakura had to hand it to Temari. It was just the balance of fuck-you and cordial.

Sasuke nodded. "I'm fine."

"That's nice. And you, Sakura, how are you today?"

"I'm great!" Sakura smiled, turning around to face them both after hitting the button for the elevator. Sakura's eyes landed on Sasuke, and she saw a little smile pulling at one corner of his mouth. As, she had quickly discovered, it was wont to do, emerald met onyx.

Sakura had no idea how long she stared, how long Sasuke stared back, but Temari had to run between them and thrust her arm out in time to keep the elevator from closing. "The elevator's here," she said loudly, with a pointed look at Sakura.

Sakura shook her head and got in, resolutely not looking at her old teammate.

The ride up in the elevator was so tense if Sasuke had enough chakra to use his fire style they all would've gone up in smoke. As it was, he could barely walk. Still. Rather than getting more trusting over the days, they seemed to be pounding him harder with the gentle fist technique. And she, Sakura, was under orders from the Hokage, one of her very last orders ever, Sakura was sure, to only heal him if it was life-threatening.

Her shishou knew her too well.

This thought sobered Sakura immensely- that, and the sight of the overcrowded first floor. It stunk like rotting flesh. Burn victims, scorch and lightning style victims, those who'd lost a limb-they were all on this floor.

"In here," Sakura said gently, peeking around the door with a smile.

"Sakura-san!" called several of the injured, perking up considerably with her arrival.

"Good morning!" Sakura said cheerfully, pulling out her clipboard. She always made it a habit to have the latest labs with her-red blood cell count, white blood count, skin graft checks, temperatures, fluids, she asked for everything she could think of. If it had even the slightest chance of helping, she looked into it. Unfortunately, most of these shinobi would never see the battlefield again. If they ever regained full use of their limbs, they would likely be sent to the Academy to teach if they elected to remain in active duty at all.

This room made her saddest of all. These men and women were going to live, but their lives were going to be changed forever. It was worse than the victims who were slowly dying.

"Haru-san," Sakura sat at the stool by his bed, smiling at him and then checking his chart, "how are your legs feeling?"

"I can wiggle my toes!"

She smiled, not objecting when he took her hand and squeezed. "That's wonderful, Haru-san. Keep taking it easy, and you should regain function of both legs."

"Sasuke, please move him down the hall to room 116."

"Temari-san can do it."

Sakura and Temari both turned to look at him. "Her reputation is on the line." Sasuke smirked. "Ladies first?" he offered, gesturing condescendingly to the bed.

Temari deigned not to speak to him at all as she passed him. "Hello, Haru-san. My name is Temari. I hope Sakura's been treating you well. She can be a little harsh."

Sakura looked miffed.

"Oh, not at all! Sakura-san has been wonderful!" Haru-san smiled a last time at Sakura before Temari had turned his bed so he was leading the way down the corridor. Sakura waved back, less miffed than she was just a minute ago.

A nice thing about working in the hospital that she kind of kept to herself was that it was a bit of an ego boost. Especially the men seemed to really favor her medical practices. They were stuck in a white room all their days and she was the only female company they ever had, so it made sense. It still felt good, though.

She turned to Sasuke, smiling pleasantly, out of mere habit. It was sort of to check if he was still in the room and sort of to check if he was paying attention. He usually was, and he'd only the left room twice, so it might not be strictly necessary to keep glancing back at him.

It was just that she was still in shock-just a little, a last remnant of surprise that he'd come back. It had been four years without him, longer than he'd been with them, and sometimes when she wasn't actively thinking about it, she forgot he was there at all. This was actually a kind of nice event, because when it occurred and she remembered that he was here, that he had come back, she got really happy. She'd been in a very cheerful mood as of late, even more than her regular mood, and people had certainly noticed.

She thought it was funny, how no one asked her but how they all assumed she was still in love with him.

Sakura took a deep breath and turned to the next patient. "Makoto-san," she greeted, standing over his bedside. "Makoto-san suffered burns to two-thirds of his body, everything from the sternum down." She checked to make sure Sasuke was paying attention, just for a second. He was. "Luckily, they're only second degree burns so the damage will heal. We're just watching out for infection on his skin grafts."

"Are you training someone, Sakura-san?"

Sakura shook her head. "This is my friend. He's helping me out today."

Makoto offered Sasuke a smile.

"Hello," Sakura heard Sasuke mutter.

Truthfully, the fact that Sasuke was trying as hard as he was made Sakura happier than it probably should have. But if there was one thing she had learned well in the years since he'd left, it was to keep her emotions about him to herself. Unless she was around Naruto. They had a way of spilling out when she was around Naruto.

"Let's take him up. We're actually moving him to the third floor." Her voice sounded distant to her own ears, but Sakura had relied on automatic enough during the war that she didn't have to pay attention to what she was doing anymore. She wrote Temari instructions for the next few beds, promising they'd be back soon.

She got behind his bed and pushed, smiling absently at Sasuke when he held the door open for her. She was quiet, too quiet for a nurse, too quiet for Sasuke, who needed constant chatter around him at all times or he'd get broody and angry.

But not too quiet for Naruto, who was even chattier than Sakura. Who spoke without even thinking, just to fill the silence. He would've gotten her talking without a problem. The thought made her smile absently.

Slowly, like a wave breaking over a rock, the memory of kissing him entered her mind.

His lips had been soft and gentle, and though the kiss had only lasted a second, if she concentrated Sakura could still summon the butterflies and remember how her mouth had tingled.

Kissing Sasuke would undoubtedly be different. The last thing he would be is gentle. He'd probably take what he wanted, harsher movements of his lips and demanding pulls of his tongue. His arms would probably lock around her and drag her powerfully to him, leaving no wiggle room. As if she'd want to be far away from him…

She pushed the up button and waited, delving again into her thoughts.

She could see Naruto making her laugh in the middle of a kiss. A_ whoops, sorry, that was your foot, wasn't it? _Or an_ okay that was weird? Let's laugh it off and never do it again. _And even an_ I totally just tripped over your comforter, didn't I? Maybe if you hadn't been so distracting, Sakura, I would've been able to walk properly_. She could see it all happening. She could see herself rendering the Hero of the Shinobi world unable to walk.

It made her giggle.

Would she have such power over Sasuke? Would he ever know the meaning of the world "gentle", or would he constantly be demanding more from her? What if he wanted to have sex right away, because that's what he was used to or that's what he wanted? What if he was always harsh, leaving bruises on her wrists and ravishing her skin…

Sakura realized her face was enflamed and abruptly stopped that train of thought. She pushed the bed into the elevator, going to climb in herself when a voice stopped her.

"Sakura."

She turned back to look at Sasuke, and again she got caught in his eyes. They were so dark she couldn't tell the pupil from the iris. She was also unable to read anything in his eyes, though sometimes she could tell he was feeling something really strongly, because the onyx would sort of swirl and shine. He didn't blink a lot, either, which made it easier to look at him. But maybe that was kind of weird, maybe he just didn't blink enough. Maybe he spent too much time using the Sharingan and slaughtering thousands of innocent people to blink regularly.

She turned back to get into the elevator, when the doors closed.

Her mouth fell open comically. "Shit."

She could feel Sasuke smirk. "Shit?"

"I just sent a patient up the third floor by himself. A burn victim! He could get motion sickness from the meds he's in from riding in the elevator too long! God, I'm such an idiot!" Sakura cursed again and angrily jabbed the down button.

There was a distinct clicking sound, almost like an engine, and then no noise at all.

"Did you just break the elevator?"

"Yep."

Sighing heavily, Sakura threw her clipboard down. "Shishou's going to kill me for breaking the elevator again."

"How many times have you broken it?"

She ignored him. Looking at him again would only spell trouble. Sakura focused, drowning out Sasuke's presence and everything else that would distract her. She was a nurse, dammit, a medical nin who had just trapped a patient in a broken elevator. And a burn victim, no less!

She dug her fingers into the very narrow space between the two doors of the elevator, and pulled. In just a few seconds, they started moving. She had to be very conscious not to use too much force, otherwise she'd break the doors, too. It was slow going, much slower than she would have liked and certainly slower than she was capable of doing, but with the way things had been going lately with her strength, breaking the elevator doors was looking likely.

With a handsome space now afforded to her between the doors, Sakura looked up the elevator shoot. There was Makoto-san, stuck between the second and third floor.

Sakura took a deep breath, trusting the echoing properties of the elevator shaft to help her. "Makoto-san, the elevator is broken! I'll get to you as soon as I can!" Sakura made it two seconds, barely enough time to get back into the hallway, before she sighed heavily.

Sasuke was smirking.

"Shut up."

"I didn't say anything."

Sakura chose to ignore him. Sweeping past him, she began thinking about what to do. The first priority was to make sure the patient was okay, and while she could go take the stairs up the third floor and drop in, it would be difficult to get in the elevator while still keeping Makoto-san safe. She didn't seem to have control over her strength anymore, and she would probably end up hurting him worse than he already was.

Making a mental note to ask Tsunade-shishou about control training, Sakura decided there was nothing for it: she'd have to call Naruto.

"Naruto's at the Hokage building, right?"

"Yeah…" Sasuke said. "Why?"

"I'm going to get him," Sakura muttered, though it was plain she was more or less talking to herself. "You're… not at your full strength right now, so you'll just slow me down. Sorry. Can you please stay and talk to Makoto-san, just so he isn't alone?" Sakura smiled her widest, clasping her hands together in a silent plea.

Eventually, she earned a jerky nod.

"Thanks!" She dashed off without a second thought.

Once outside, she used the roofs to her advantage. It was always faster up here, where the civilians weren't, so shinobi often chose this route to get around the village when they were in a hurry. She liked to do it herself, especially because it was something she had struggled with when she was younger.

Fortunately, the hospital was fairly close to the Hokage building. Sakura was fairly sure once when she'd pointed out this observation someone had told her it was for the benefit of the Hokage, should they ever be injured. It made a lot of sense. She just didn't get why no one else thought to ask.

Sliding neatly into the top office, Sakura was more than a little surprised to find Naruto and Hinata looking over some papers.

Sakura tried her best to smile, unsure why it felt so difficult to lift her lips all of the sudden.

"Hi, Hinata. Naruto-" Sakura inclined her head toward the window. "Come with me. I need your help."

Naruto hesitated. "Hinata and I were…"

"Please?" tried Sakura, smiling widely again. "I really need you, Naruto."

Naruto stood up immediately. "Sorry, Hinata, I'll get back to you later, I promise!" He flashed a thumbs-up and then made his way to Sakura, smiling already. "Where are we going?"

"The hospital." She replied, going back out the window. "I broke the elevator again-"

She ignored his snort for the most part, only sending him a brief glare.

"And you need me to use a clone and get in there." Naruto finished. "I've got it."

Sakura looked briefly at him, her eyes narrowed. "A patient got stuck in the elevator this time, so it's trickier." She looked troubled. "It's a burn victim. I was… I was pretty stupid, I got angry and jabbed the button…"

"You're too strong," Naruto teased, poking her bicep.

Sakura stuck her tongue out at him, laughing. "First I hit Sasuke, and then I break the elevator… My strength might be developing again."

"So you'll get even stronger?"

"It's possible." Sakura shrugged. "Most shinobi reach the height of their abilities at seventeen or eighteen."

She didn't know _why_ this thought was occurring to her or what it sense it made at all, but the impulse was flaring wildly through her. The worst thing about impulses, even more so than that they were hard to control, is that they were always born from desires. Things you wanted to do but perhaps were too afraid to.

As they landed, Sakura laid her hand on Naruto's upper arm. The muscle definition was obvious, even through his thick coat. "You're gonna get stronger too."

They had kissed… So she could _probably_ touch his arm.

"You better believe it." Naruto told her, blue eyes bright and smile wide.

There went that cocoon of butterflies that had recently taken up residence in her chest. He always smiled so brightly at her, though, it was entirely his fault…

"This way," Sakura tried to continue, ignoring how her voice didn't sound quite right again. "Sasuke's been talking to him…"

"Yeah, that's nice." Sasuke was saying. "Vegetables are important."

Sakura laughed to herself, glancing at Naruto and then at Sasuke. He still didn't know how to talk to people, did he?

She strolled right past the black-haired nin and went in the elevator shaft again. "Makoto-san, we're going to get you out now. We have to leave for a little while because we're going to the third floor, but you'll be out soon!"

She vaguely heard his affirmative reply, but decided it was good enough. Even if he hadn't replied affirmatively, he would be glad to get out no matter what. So that was what they were going to do.

"The stairs are over here," she told the boys, gesturing vaguely. She walked up first, confident in her hospital, now wearing a worried frown. How long had Makoto-san been in there? Surely it couldn't have been too long? She was gone five minutes, maybe, and he was in there only a few before she left… So he was probably fine. She bit her lip. What if there was a virus in the elevator and he had contracted it?

She could never forgive herself if her stupid, careless temper had gotten him _sicker_.

Sudden warmth flew up her skin from her fingertips. Turning, she quickly saw that Naruto had tentatively grasped her fingers with his. Her first instinct was to twine their fingers together completely, but she didn't move. Her face was so red it practically hurt, but she thought she _did_ manage to smile at him.

"Here," Sakura said unnecessarily, easily opening the elevator doors again.

"Got it," Naruto said cheerfully, forming his hand sign. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" The clone walked into the elevator shaft, jumped deftly onto the top of the elevator, and proceeded to shout, "Don't worry, mister, you'll be out of here soon!"

Sakura sighed a little, taking a moment to relax. It was such a relief to finally have things under control. Leaning against Naruto, she took a few deep breaths in and out. When the sounds of the clone cutting a hole in the elevator with the kunai stopped, she straightened up again.

Bounding forward, she joined the clone on the elevator. "Makoto-san!" She called, peering through the hole.

"I'm fine, Sakura-san! Your boyfriend was talking to me while you were gone!"

"My who?" Sakura squeaked.

Makoto-san's answer was drowned out by Naruto's cry of "what?!" and Sasuke's laughter. Sakura shook her head to clear her thoughts and jumped down into the elevator. "I'm so sorry," she said without giving a specific reason why, just to cover all her bases, which seemed to be multiplying, "ignore him. Ignore both of them. They're idiots."

"This will hurt a little." Sakura warned him, trying to offer an encouraging smile.

"It's alright." Makoto-san smiled back, shifting closer to Sakura when she put her arm around him.

She nodded and leapt up, landing gracefully on top of the elevator. As gently as she could manage, she leapt up again and landed back on the third floor.

Naruto and Sasuke were staring challengingly at each other, neither one moving. Sakura rolled her eyes. "Come on, Makoto-san, your room is just down the hall."

The limping Makoto and Sakura led the way, followed by a very tense pair of shinobi who refused to look at each other. Luckily, the room was near the elevator.

"I'm so sorry the sheets aren't on the bed," Sakura apologized sincerely, "but-"

"Don't worry about it." Makoto-san assured her again, still smiling.

"I appreciate that, but Makoto-san I can see you're in a lot of pain. Stop being brave and tell me where it hurts."

Makoto-san laid down, visibly uncomfortable now that Naruto and Sasuke cared to look. "My chest, mostly," he admitted.

"This will help." Sakura told him, gently unfastening the top of the hospital gown to get a look at his chest. The flesh was burnt and black, but red and obviously healing in some places. It was a gruesome sight, and frankly she was surprised no one behind her made a sound. Placing her hands over his chest, she summoned her healing chakra.

"Is it a burning sensation?"

"Yes, but it's fine, you really don't have to-"

Her warning glare, suddenly fierce, shut him up. Her chakra would cool him off easily, but healing the skin would take a bit of effort. "I'm going to speed along your healing process." She informed him, wiping her forehead on her shoulder. "Give me a second."

Sakura took a deep breath, clearing her mind of all extraneous thoughts, and focused on repairing the cells. Burn victims were especially tricky- depending on how badly they'd been burned, the healing had to be performed on that level of skin. Mixing up the layer would cause itching at best and bleeding at worst. Luckily, his injuries were not on a cellular level, but even so, Sakura knew she had to be careful.

In a few more seconds, the black flesh pinkened.

As much as Sakura wanted to continue healing him until she had used most of her chakra, it just wasn't protocol. It was foolish to waste all of one's abilities on one patient who would heal on his own, anyway. She pulled back, smiling at him.

"You're fantastic, Sakura-san! It doesn't hurt anymore!"

"I'm glad!" said Sakura sincerely, exhaling. Makoto covered her hand with his and squeezed.

Sakura stepped back after a few seconds. "I have other patients. I'll see you again tonight."

The boys were already in the hall waiting for her. As soon as she shut the door, Sakura leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes for a moment.

"Sakura-chan?" asked Naruto immediately.

When Sakura looked at him again, his eyes were filled with so much concern it was almost laughable. "I'm fine." She reassured him, easily summoning a smile. "Healing burnt flesh is the most difficult healing technique for skin, that's all."

"But you did it so well!" Naruto sounded impressed.

"Yeah," added Sasuke, surprising Sakura, "not just anyone can do that."

Sakura's smile was bigger, but she tried to shrug and play it off. "Yeah, well… I _am _pretty good. They don't call me the Second Tsunade for nothing."

"Who calls you that?" asked Naruto curiously.

Ignoring Sasuke's snort, Sakura glared at him. "Lots of people."

"I've never heard anyone-"

Sakura huffed and turned on her heel, speeding quickly off from them.

Naruto caught up to her. "Sakura-chan! Wait! What did I do?"

"Naruto," she sighed, "you can't just… You… It's alright." She told him. "I forgive you."

He was right back to beaming.

"_There_ you are!"

"Temari!" shouted Sakura in surprise.

"I've been looking everywhere for you." She seemed a little annoyed, Sakura thought, but _she_ wasn't dealing with the two of _them_. "Where have you been?"

"The elevator got stuck." Sakura supplied. "I had to get Naruto to come help."

"Oh," the Sand kunoichi replied quickly, "Hi, Naruto."

"Hi, Temari!"

Temari smiled briefly, completely ignoring Sasuke. Sakura sighed inwardly. Now she had to deal with _three_ of them?

"Well, time to finish moving the patients…"

"Oh, I already did that." Temari scoffed.

"How? The elevator was broken?"

"I just carried them." She shrugged. "There were beds in the all rooms. Finding nurses to put sheets on the beds wasn't hard."

"You're efficient," Sakura approved, earlier annoyance at her friend forgotten, "nice."

"Of course I am." Temari grinned, resolutely ignoring Sasuke, at both Sakura and Naruto, and then cracked her shoulders. "Well, I'm off to the Academy. See you guys!"

"Bye!" The two of them called.

"She's annoying." Sasuke commented. "And really full of herself. I have no idea how Shikamaru puts up with her."

"She's really sweet, actually," said Sakura unsurely, wondering where this was coming from.

"What, like, once a year? She must be good at something _else_."

"What do you…"

Sasuke raised his eyebrows at Sakura. "You really don't know?"

Sakura _knew_. She just didn't like that he was talking about it like that, that he had said that about her friend. "She's a really good person. She's brave and she saved a lot of us on the battlefield."

Sasuke shrugged.

"Oi, teme, you better shut up about Temari. You don't know anything about her."

Sasuke shrugged, apparently deciding to drop the subject.

Sakura hesitantly crossed her arms. She knew exactly why she felt so uncomfortable, she was just shocked that something like that had come out of Sasuke's mouth. He used to be… if not polite, then at least decent. He didn't talk about things like that. He respected things like that, knew how big of a deal they were.

Suddenly, Sakura had to prevent herself from punching him again.

Anger raced through her veins, making her dig her nails into her arms. Another impulse flared through her, all the way down her arm. Grabbing Naruto's hand, she went back into Makoto's room.

"Makoto-san, _this_ is my boyfriend. His name is Naruto Uzumaki. He's going to be the next Hokage. The person you spoke to was an old teammate of mine, Sasuke Uchiha."

She felt only a _little_ bad for Makoto-san. He went through confusion to understanding to awe to disgust in so little time.

"Right, Naruto?" She turned to him, squeezing his hand.

"Right!" He beamed, giving Makoto-san the thumbs up symbol.

Makoto-san smiled. "Well, you stay away from that other one, Sakura-san. There's no telling what he would do if his chakra wasn't being blocked."

Despite her previous haughty attitude, that still struck a chord with Sakura. She managed to stay calm enough not to snap anything, though, for which she was grateful. Makoto-san had already been through enough without her snapping at him. By all perspectives, he was within his rights to say that.

They went out in the hall again, and Sakura took a deep breath.

"Naruto," she muttered, sighing deeply, "I need a minute."

"Oh," he sounded confused and went to actually move away from her, "okay, I'll just-"

Sakura wrapped her arms around him, resting her cheek against his chest. Naruto didn't move for a beat-his heart was quick in his chest, which made her smile so automatically when she realized she snuggled deeper into his chest to hide it-but then his arms went around her, too.

She closed her eyes, exhaling and breathing deeply, trying to let go of the anger she felt despite the quick pulse of heart. The anger she felt at Makoto-san was minimal at best; he wasn't out-of-bounds to say something like that, not at all. Her anger was more about the fact that he _could_ say it at all. Her anger was that Sasuke had left. Him coming back, until just a few minutes ago, had brought her nothing but happiness. But now she could only be upset that he'd left in the first place.

It felt like something of a transition, and now that she was transitioning, she couldn't help but think she probably should have gone through this years ago. It had been four years since he left, and all that time she refused to see him for the person he was now. It was all so clear…

She pulled away enough to look at Naruto, trying to read his face. It wasn't hard to figure out his facial expressions, but he had this look in his eye sometimes that she could never quite figure out. She wanted to, now. She wanted to know what every look of his meant.

Had he already figured this out? Maybe he never had to in the first place? He was the one who had fought Sasuke as he was leaving; maybe he'd known since then?

Sakura sighed sadly and buried her face in Naruto's chest.

She missed the sound of the door opening and closing.

Naruto was having an interesting time as of lately. Sometimes he knew exactly what to do with himself, and then other times he was around Sakura. Sakura was holding his hand and hugging him. Sakura was letting him kiss her. Sakura was informing patients of hers that he was her boyfriend.

Which made her his girlfriend.

Every time he came to that conclusion, the conclusion that _definitely_ made sense given he had heard her say the words _with his own ears_, he couldn't help the face-splitting grin.

He often forgot how tiny she was. The way she took control of a team when it came to healing, how confident she was in the hospital, the absolute power she had in every single move she made. But then she was fit herself against him, and he really noticed that she was _small_.

Physically small, but she could move mountains. Short, but she had the capacity to care for everyone she ever met. Thin and wiry, but she could yell sense into the thickest head-which he knew from personal experience.

He wouldn't be who he was today without her.

"Sakura," he muttered, beyond content to hold her and rest his cheek against her head, "am I really your boyfriend?"

He understood that she was going through a difficult time. He had understood this thing between her and Sasuke best for four years, now. Better than she understood it herself, he was fairly certain. He knew she would never use him, and that any way she hurt him was a complete accident and no doubt something she would make up for later. He knew that no matter what she did, he could never stay angry with her.

But he needed to know if she meant this. He wouldn't play pretend and he wouldn't go on lying to himself. If this was real, he wanted to hear her say it.

When she looked up, she had tears in her eyes.

Horror immediately shot through him. He hadn't meant to make her cry! "Sakura-chan! I'm sorry! Don't cry!"

"If you want it to be." Came her voice, uncharacteristically small despite her small body. "I… I meant what I said, Naruto. I really do love you."

He chuckled. He couldn't help it. It had sort of just come out, and beyond that she was absolutely _ridiculous_. "Of course I want to! It's you!"

The look on her face was perhaps more appropriate for being told she had just cured cancer by sheer force of will. The fact that he put that look on her face made his heart swell.

"You know I love you too, right?"

Sakura nodded, a few tears leaking from her eyes.

Her hands left him to wipe at her cheeks, happy laughter bubbling all the while from her throat.

Naruto smiled widely, unbothered by her crying. He took her face in his large hands and pressed his lips to hers.

This kiss was different. Immediately, everything about it was different. It wasn't quite as hesitant as the one in his apartment had been, though it was anything but aggressive.

Neither of them had much experience doing this, so they were willing to experiment together. She tried to tilt her head, but he had the same idea and the kiss ended up breaking.

They dissolved into laughter, but only for a few seconds before Sakura's lips caught his. This time she made sure to tilt her head before he did, and very abruptly the angle at which their mouths met was a lot nicer. Still soft, but something understated and passionate about it, too.

Almost like instinct, because she _never_ would have reacted this way if she could have thought about it, she opened her mouth and their tongues met. And it was _weird. _Kami it was weird. This was _Naruto_.

But then, for whatever reason, he seemed to gain a bit of confidence and his tongue swept across hers. Immediately, Sakura melted, sagging helplessly against him. That was _nice_. She wanted him to do it again. Instead, she tried it herself.

Naruto's low moan was her reward. A sound that had some unfamiliar sensation rushing through her. She smiled, accidentally causing the kiss to break.

She went to open her eyes when his mouth caught hers again. _This_ kiss was different still from the others. For the first time, Sakura stopped thinking so much and just let it happen. Their tongues met, they changed the angle several times, and Naruto had pushed her back into the wall, letting their bodies hit at such an angle and velocity that Sakura felt herself shudder in _pleasure_.

Please. Desire. Something she had very little experience with. But his body was all hard lines and long plains against hers and it was something very _masculine_ and _strong_ and she actually _whimpered._

Rathern than be embarrassed, her body's reaction threw her mind even further into the kiss, and now she wasn't just yielding and figuring things out leisurely. Now she was experimenting, nipping at his mouth gently and discovering she had hands and that they still worked despite her obvious preoccupation. Her hands found his chest, part of those planes and lines that had earned that noise from her. Rather than push him away, she pulled him closer, rising to the very tip toes of her feet so that they were the same height. Everything _lined up _like this, from their mouths to their chests, to their hips…

Sakura broke the kiss, gasping and completely out of breath.

So out of breath it might be embarrassing, were it not the fact that he almost seemed worse off than her.

Despite herself, she giggled. She was happy and it was _bursting_ out of her. "Definitely my boyfriend. Only my boyfriend gets to kiss me."

Naruto beamed, speaking even with his apparent lack of oxygen. "That was… Sakura-chan, I've been dreaming about kissing you since we were twelve. And you know what, it was better than anything I could have imagined. You're amazing. You're my girlfriend!" He found his air again to laugh.

Such a laugh that had Sakura's heart filling with such a balloon of bursting happiness that she joined in on the laughter. Joy just had to escape sometimes, and it happened in the form of laughter. Exactly the opposite of sadness and tears, exactly the thing Sasuke had always made her feel.

Sakura kissed him again.

"Shikamaru-sensei! Shikamaru-sensei! We're really glad you're back!"

"Is that so?" he wondered in a voice that perfectly relayed his suspicion, "Is that because Ebisu-sensei wouldn't let you do whatever you want?"

"Noooo!" Came the immediate protest.

"You're a better sensei than he is, anyway!"

"He's _weird_." A little girl chimed. Then she thought for a moment. "Well, you're weird too, but you're the _good_ kind of weird."

"I'm glad you think so." Shikamaru tried to contain his snort.

"You're back forever now, right?" Demanded another student. "We'll never have another sensei again?"

"Until the end of the year." Shikamaru promised, smiling lightly.

The kids cheered, their little voice high-pitched and squeaky. Shikamaru was still smiling. For a few seconds, Temari wondered if they were being overdramatic or exaggerating to get a rise out of their sensei. But that didn't seem to be the case.

"Alright, that lunch break was nice, but take your seats, okay?"

There was a general shuffle as people moved to their seats, and Temari took the opportunity.

"Henge!" She whispered. In a puff of smoke, she was an eight-year-old again, able to fit in perfectly with his class. She walked casually in and sat in the middle of the room, not at the back or the front, trying her absolute best not to stick out at all.

"Where did Ebisu-sensei leave off?" asked Shikamaru, scratching his head and glancing at something on the podium in front of him.

"All he did was talk about Genjutsu." scoffed a little boy with brown hair. "I don't like Genjutsu!"

"Yeah, Genjutsu is boring!" There was a general murmur of agreement.

Temari's eyes were trained on Shikamaru, and by the slight hesitation in the way he spoke up she knew he was remembering the Infinite Tsukuyomi.

"Genjutsu is very important," he said mechanically, "but fine, I won't talk about it." He thought for a moment. "Let's talk about ninjutsu. Who knows the five main types of jutsu chakra?"

"Fire!" said one boy enthusiastically.

"Lightning!"

"Water!" said a little girl with long hair.

"Earth!"

"That's my chakra," Shikamaru added. "What's the last one?"

"Hmmmm." Went the class. "I don't remember."

"Are you sure there's one more, Shikamaru-sensei? Maybe you just made it up!"

"Wind." Piped up Temari. Her little girl voice was hilarious and it was difficult not to laugh. Only the notion that her laugh would likely come out a giggle stopped her.

"That's right," Shikamaru said, nodding briefly to her. "Now, who knows what type of Chakra they have? Let's take a survey."

His handwriting wasn't absolutely awful now that he wasn't doing pointless paperwork in triplicate, which she found pleasing for some reason. "Okay, so out of our class of twenty-two students, we have eight with earth-type chakra, six with water-type, four with lightning-type, three with fire-type, and one with wind-type."

Temari raised her hand. "Is wind type really rare?"

Shikamaru offered her a shrug. "Not really. It just happens that it isn't common in our class."

"Do the chakra types mean anything about what kind of shinobi that person will become?"

Shikamaru shook his head. "Not necessarily. You have a lot of questions. Are you a new student?"

Temari shook her head, trying to hide her smirk. He was figuring it out finally.

He looked at her for a moment and then moved on. "Moving forward, let me ask you guys a question. Is it true that for every type of ninjutsu and jutsu technique, you need to use a chakra type? Furthermore, can only certain types of chakra perform certain jutsus?"

There was discussion for a few moments, and then Temari spoke up again. "That's usually true," she started, taking care not to look around her lest she put Shikamaru's mind at ease, "because only a person with fire-type chakra would be able to use a fire-type jutsu. However, there are some exceptions with the more basic jutsus. Such as the substitution jutsu."

There was another general murmuring around her, and Temari knew she had just established herself as the smart kid.

"That's right." Shikamaru told her, smiling a little. "Who can do the substitution jutsu?" He asked the class. About half of the students raised their hands.

"Who can do the transformation jutsu?" About half of the hands went down. As soon as the word left his lips, Temari knew he'd figured it out. Damn genius brain of his.

"Fine, fine, you caught me." Temari stood up and formed the seal expertly. In a puff of smoke, she was twenty again.

A shocked murmur went through the class, as well as some sounds of appreciation and awe.

"Class, this is Temari." Shikamaru introduced her, smirking. She left her seat and walked down the stairs, keeping her eyes on his. (As if she could look away.) She could see the amusement in his eyes, and she flashed a grin at him automatically.

"Hi, class," she finished when she reached her place beside him. "I'm Temari."

His shoulder was brushing hers. She wasn't sure who had moved to fill the space, but it was nice to be standing next to him again, and even nicer to be doing it without their lives on the line.

Immediately, the questions were fired at her.

"Temari-san, did you fight in the war too?"

"Did you and Shikamaru-sensei fight in the war?"

"Are you a Jounin, Temari-san?"

"Are you from the sand? Is that why your headband is different?"

"Why did you pretend to be a student?"

And then finally, the inevitable inquiry: "Are you Shikamaru-sensei's girlfriend?"

She opened her mouth to respond, but surprisingly Shikamaru beat her to it.

"Yes, she is." To demonstrate, he took her hand and twined their fingers. He held up their hands briefly, as if letting his students examine the evidence, and then let their arms hang down again.

A pleasant warmth went through her when he so willingly told his students. She was absolutely powerless to stop the wide smile that crossed her face.

More questions and comments: "Shikamaru-sensei, are you two in love?" "Temari-san, are you going to get married?" "Shikamaru-sensei, she's really pretty!" "Temari-san, you're really pretty!" "Temari-san, are you going to change villages?"

She and Shikamaru shared a significant look, and then Temari put on a broad smile. "We'll see. It happens sometimes, you know. Konoha _is_ a pretty great village."

The students cheered, obviously in agreement with her statement.

Privately, Temari couldn't _believe_ she had just told an entire room of Konoha Academy students she was going to change villages. _Before her brothers. Before Shikamaru, even! _Well, he might have guessed- but still! She was a mess. An absolute _mess_. All because she loved him.

"Alright, line up," Shikamaru commanded lazily, breaking her out of her thoughts; it was kind of amazing how he managed to be both commanding and lazy at the same time, "we're going to practice henge no jutsu, inspired by Temari-san's _brilliant_," his voice was drier than Suna, still lazy, "display of technique."

She went to let go of his hand so he could teach-she didn't want to be in the way, after all, and she'd already had her fun and he probably didn't miss her yet like she missed him because she was a girl and it was inevitable she'd feel things before he did-but he gripped her hand tighter.

Sudden, all-consuming warmth filled her again, and she tried to remember the last time she had been this happy. His eyes had caught hers and she was absolutely trapped, unable to let go of his hand, unable to speak, unable to move at all. He could probably read it all in her face, too. Her emotional training was completely out of her mind, and all she wanted to do was throw her arms around him and kiss him.

But they were in front of his students. In the Academy. Where he worked. It wasn't appropriate. She settled for squeezing his hand as tightly as she could, managing to tear her gaze from his only when he squeezed back.

"Transform into me or Temari-san or Ebisu-sensei," Shikamaru went on, "this is for a grade."

It was sometime later, after the kids had been sent home for the day and Shikamaru was finalizing their grades from the henge jutsu, did Temari truly remember how to use her voice.

"That your definition of romantic?" She managed teasingly, seating herself on his lap.

One arm settled around her, the other continued to write.

She was past caring about how much affection she showed him at this point. His entire class thought they were going to get married, that she was going to become a Konoha shinobi, and that they were madly in love. She couldn't do much more damage to her reputation, so at this point ignoring the desire to be as close to him as possible was just stupid.

"I thought it was alright," he told her, scratching away the quick numbers and names. "I didn't have much time to think."

She rolled her eyes. She could still attempt to remain in control, though. If he didn't already know how her heart had fucking _fluttered_ all throughout the day every time he mentioned her name or kept holding her hand for no other reason than because he seemingly wanted to or commented on something sly about the students' transformation who had picked her, like that _it didn't have enough freckles_ or _her eyes are darker-_ then she certainly wasn't going to tell him. It wasn't exactly that her dignity had been squashed and rolled over, but neither did she feel like herself anymore, either.

Maybe she was changing. Maybe this was what happiness felt like.

"It was pretty good," she admitted, "except now your class thinks we're going to get married."

He shrugged one shoulder, but she noticed he very clearly offered no comment.

"And they think we're madly in love."

He repeated the motion, still maintaining silence.

"And that I'm going to become a Konoha ninja."

"It makes sense." He spoke this time, but she noticed his arm was no longer moving for him to write. "If you stay here, it's not as if you'll stay at home and cook."

She snorted loudly. "Your mom will probably come over and do that for us."

"Probably."

"If we move out first."

"That's true."

She let the invitation hang in the air for a few seconds, and then nodded to herself. _Not yet. _Lately their life seemed to be full of _not yets_.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: This is a very ShikaTema heavy chapter, though there's no NSFW content. I'm definitely going to be moving back to them, since they are my OTP. But Chouji is in this chapter again, which I'm quite happy about! I really love Chouji! (:**

**I meant to put Ino in here, but she just didn't fit. soon!**

**My writing process is slowing down a bit, so here's hoping I get back into things. I present: chapter six!**

The speed with which the rumor that Naruto and Sakura were together spread was only even remotely matched by the rumor that Shikamaru and Temari were together.

It wasn't that Shikamaru or Temari had ever _not_ told people or even _hid _it, it was just that everyone had been stuck on their own things and hadn't paid much attention to the two young people holding hands. Post-War Konoha seemed to be full of people that minded their own business. But now that things were starting to go back to normal, the gossip hounds were emerging victorious from their dens, catching the scent of new romance on the air.

Of course, even their coupling was overshadowed by Naruto and Sakura. The _Hero of the Shinobi World_ understandably merited more interest about his love life. Especially when one found out that they were on the same team, that they'd grown up together, that she was the Top Medical Nin in the Shinobi World. It was a match made in heaven, they said, perfect and romantic and incredibly sweet. By comparison, the subtle nuances that had led Shikamaru and Temari to where they were right now were overlooked.

Not that it bothered either of them at all. Temari was more used to being in the spotlight than her boyfriend, but neither of them particularly enjoyed being unable to walk around the village without being mobbed.

Being intelligent, they quickly figured out that mentioning something about Naruto and Sakura being "over there" or "at the ramen stand" diverted the attention of most citizens.

Temari was only slightly bothered that she and Shikamaru were apparently second string, and she knew that was his fault. She used to hate everything a lot more, be a lot angrier and unforgiving and proud and haughty and I'll-kill-you-if-you-piss-me-off. But he was such a fucking _calming presence_ that she found it hard to be genuinely angry for very long at all.

Until she remembered her fan.

"I feel _naked_ without it!" She hissed, glaring angrily at nothing. "Fucking Kankuro! I'll kill him, Shikamaru, I swear I will!"

"He was drunk; he didn't mean to."

"I know!" She exploded. "But I want my fan back!"

"The ironworker was busy; he couldn't get us in until next week."

"I bet if I threatened him, he'd-" She cut herself off, already knowing what his face looked like. _That isn't the way things are done in Konoha. We just finished a war, he's swamped. There's no need for all your violence, woman._

"But he hasn't actually _met_ me. Maybe once he does, I can convince him without using violence, and-" She cut herself off again, already anticipating the look he was giving her.

Yeah, she was pretty bad at not using violence.

She punched him in the arm.

As she seemed to be now around him, her anger didn't stick around for very long. She gave a world-weary sigh and glared half-heartedly at him. "I hate you."

"No, you don't."

She sighed again, more loudly.

And then he was laughing at her.

"Listen, you bastard-"

He was kissing her. Well, that was certainly a better use of his mouth than making fun of her.

When the kiss broke several long minutes later, Temari caught his eyes, his lazy grin, and sighed again. If he weren't so good-looking, she probably wouldn't have this problem. But between his new jawline (new as in developed within the last year), the way his eyes shone at her, and his stupid lazy grin, she was a sucker.

"I think your class liked me."

He scoffed. "That's an understatement." He narrowed his eyes teasingly. "Maybe if you'd just walked in like a normal person instead of pretending to be an _eight-year-old_, you'd ever have a prayer of not setting foot in that room again."

"I don't mind." She said pleasantly, detecting the playfulness in his tone. "Those girls need a strong kunoichi in their lives." She narrowed her eyes suddenly. "Most of your senseis are male. There a particular reason for that?"

Shikamaru shrugged, unwilling to fall into her trap. "Strong kunoichi usually fight."

She nodded, fighting a pout. She _always_ forgot how smart he was. How did she keep forgetting? Temari heaved a fourth sigh-he made her sigh too fucking much, the bastard-and kissed him again.

"Come on, my brothers are probably waiting for us."

"It's your fault we're late, anyway."

"Well, you didn't have to go along with it."

They snorted. They _both_ knew how ridiculous that was. As if he'd ever turn down sex with her. As if she could keep her hands off him. As if he could ever resist the idea of her body writhing underneath him.

She kissed him again, more briefly this time. "So," she began, walking again toward the restaurant, "I don't think we should kiss in front of my brothers. They've been surprisingly agreeable about this whole thing, and I don't put it past either of them to suddenly reveal they've been angry for two weeks."

Shikamaru muttered something about "troublesome and violent brothers", but nodded.

"However, they've just got to get used to it. So don't think you're sitting on the either side of the table."

"I wouldn't dare." He replied dryly.

She flicked his ear, narrowing her eyes. "You like sitting next to me."

"Yes."

Her eyes were still narrowed, which meant she was still angry. Was she really that concerned about her brothers' approval? They had basically already given it. What could possibly happen? "Temari, you're my girlfriend. I like everything about, in, near, and around you. It's going to be okay with your brothers. They love you. They aren't blind- It'll work out."

Her eyes softened, and she took a moment to nestle into his shoulder. "I hope so."

**INTHERESTAURANT**

Despite her continually-growing mushy feelings that Shikamaru produced in her, she still found it difficult to allow herself more than a few moments of weakness at a time-no matter how comfortable his shoulder was, how good he smelled, or how she could feel his smile pressed into her hair-and before long they were heading into the restaurant.

Bypassing the host completely, and tugging Shikamaru along so resolutely that he had little more time than to shrug at the confused host, Temari found her brothers on her own. They were seated in the back of the restaurant, in the nicer dining section reserved for elite guests and important dignitaries. They were conversing with one another, thankfully on the same side of the table. Temari loved it when they cooperated with her plans, and yelling at one of them to move was not something she wanted to do tonight. She wanted tonight to be _fun_.

As she approached them, she heard them discussing something. However, she quickly decided that their conversation couldn't have been more important than seeing their only sister, so she announced herself.

"Hello, brothers! I am here!"

They looked up, Gaara with slight amusement and Kankuro with a mocking smirk.

"Hello."

"Hey, sis."

Dropping Shikamaru's hand, she walked right over and gave Gaara a big hug, pulling him tightly to her. Though he returned the hug, when Temari pulled away, Gaara's face was red.

"You, too," Temari mock glared at her other brother, pulling him just as tightly to her.

"Geez, Temari…" But the rest of his protests died when he hugged her back. Better than Gaara, who was still unused to physical affection, but still a bit awkwardly. Still, she'd made the initiative to hug her brothers five years ago, and she knew they appreciated it deep down.

For his part, Shikamaru stood by with a slight smile on his face. She really loved her brothers, and it was actually rather cute. Not that he'd ever admit it out loud.

Gaara offered Shikamaru his hand, which the Konoha nin took gratefully.

Kankuro did the same, if a bit less warmly than Gaara. "I'm so glad you didn't try to hug us."

Shikamaru snorted. "No danger there."

Temari stood back up, having fussed with her brothers' hair for a little while, muttering about combs and a lack of personal hygiene, and went back to her side of the table. Shikamaru pulled out her chair for her, meeting her gaze with one eyebrow raised in challenge.

She paused for half a second, taking in his smirk and the confident way he was holding himself. She wanted to say something, yet she knew that if she did it would mean he would win. He did things like these to _make_ her say something. She didn't want to let him win, so she squared her shoulders and nodded at him.

"Thank you," she said gracefully, smirking at the look of slight surprise on his face, though it was present for less than a second. She looked toward her brothers, rolling her eyes.

"Apparently, he's a gentleman."

"Apparently," returned Kankuro, who now seemed to be shamelessly scrutinizing Shikamaru as if he expected him to suddenly attack.

Pointedly, Temari took his hand.

Kankuro backed off, only in posture, but Temari knew it counted and tried to appreciate it, instead of be irritated he was being so hostile.

"I've missed you guys," Temari continued, smiling lightly at her brothers so she could focus on other emotions. "How are the Reformation Talks going?"

"Well," said Gaara, "we certainly have a good foundation. Sasuke actually has some good ideas." He frowned thoughtfully. "His execution tends to leave a lot to be desired, though."

Temari nodded. She almost said "I wish I could be there", but she caught herself in time. No one needed to hear that, not her brothers nor Shikamaru. She was making this as easy as possible, she reminded herself.

"How have you been?" inquired Gaara with a light smile of his own.

"Good." Temari glanced at Shikamaru, trying to keep her breathless little laugh (that escaped her throat _without_ her consent) to herself even as her smile grew. "Really good."

"She hasn't shut up about either of you," added Shikamaru with an impressively straight face. "Talks about both of you constantly. An embarrassing amount."

Kankuro was just sort of staring at Shikamaru, but Gaara, at least, caught on to the joke. "She never shuts up about _you_." He added, glancing at Temari and then back at Shikamaru. "Shikamaru this, Nara that, he's so dammed _lazy _he could transform into a sloth and be perfectly fine with it." Temari's slight surprise at Gaara's joke was interrupted by her other brother's loud laugh.

"It's true, man. She's _awful_. Like a love-sick little girl!"

"Shut up!" Said Temari automatically, trying to understand whether or not she was really angry. "It's not my fault!"

"Who's is it?"

"His!"

"How it is it _my_ fault?"

Temari regarded him as though he were an idiot. She moved on.

"So Gaara, how's Matsuri-chan?"

Gaara paused a minute, just a second too long. "What do you mean?"

"Matsuri-chan is this girl who likes him." She told Shikamaru. "She's a Genin. She practically worships Gaara. I think she applied to work in your office, isn't that right?"

Gaara shrugged. "Kankuro's been having sex with konoha civilians."

Temari snorted loudly, only just managing not to burst out laughing. Beside her, she felt Shikamaru shift in curiosity. "Females, right Kankuro? Should we be worried about any new puppet masters in nine months?"

Kankuro scowled. "That won't be necessary, thank you for kindness, Mari."

'Mari?' mouthed Shikamaru, looking at Temari. But she wasn't looking at him.

"If we are, that's cool, little brother. Shikamaru is good with kids."

Shikamaru blanched. "I'm not signing up to do _anything_ with little puppet masters."

Temari's shoulders shook with laughter, but she managed to keep talking. "Be honest, it's okay. I'm your sister. I'll love you no matter what. I'm sure Gaara wants to know, too. Has he-" She looked at Gaara. "Have you been standing outside his door again? You can get a hotel room, too, you know."

"I know that…" Gaara muttered, looking a bit ashamed. "I just thought, why pay money. It's not like I sleep that much anyway."

Temari shrugged, apparently on a roll now. "Well, I'm glad you know how to use protection, little brother. It's a relief for all those civilians you've got on strings." She waved her fingers mockingly at him.

It might have been a bit harsh, but it appeared to be how they functioned. None of the siblings seemed truly upset, though Kankuro seemed at least uneasy. Frankly, Shikamaru was surprised this topic had gone on as long as it had without Kankuro mentioning-

"_You're_ using protection, aren't you, Temari?" Kankuro narrowed his eyes and leaned across the table, grinning wickedly. "We don't want you to have any children until we've figured out how to make sure they don't get your hair."

Temari trudged on despite her red face. "_I'm_ the eldest. I _taught_ you about contraception."

"Yeah, yeah," Kankuro waved her off and turned to Shikamaru, a positively evil look in his eye. "How about you, Nara?"

"Yep," responded Shikamaru with a courageous attempt to ignore his red face, "it's covered. Thanks for your concern."

"Oh, you prefer condoms?" Kankuro nodded sagely. "They're effective. I can't be mad about that."

Shikamaru was wearing such an expression that made Temari think the amount of _troublesome_ in the conversation was going to give him a headache. She kissed his cheek quickly, muttering something to him that neither of her brothers heard.

"It's troublesome, but it's worth it, right?" She teased, lips brushing against his ear. Her hand covered the action, just to spare her brothers the sight. Which was good, because that might have pushed Kankuro over the edge. As it was, she was spending rather too many moments whispering in his ear, leaning rather too close to him. And he had this _idiotic_ little smile on his face that might as well not have excited at all, it was so slight.

Before either of them could comment, however, the water came to take their order. When the waiter left, Temari appeared to be back to her normal self. A normal distance from Shikamaru, not touching him in overt ways, conversing with everyone instead of muttering into his ear.

Until the food came.

"This is _not_ what I ordered."

Shikamaru stared critically at her dish. "I'm sure it was an accident."

"I don't fucking care if it was an accident, I'm _really_ hungry. We didn't have lunch because we were with your students all day."

"Temari-"

"I'm gonna go talk to the manager about the service." She made to stand, and then looked abruptly at her brothers. "Is your food correct?"

They offered her shrugs and nods, idly wondering if this meal was going to be free, too. Temari had a _talent_ for yelling at people and making them feel like shit, especially food service workers. She understood that they were busy, she never had a problem with how _long_ the food took to come out, or even if it wasn't hot, but give her the _wrong_ food and watch her reduce grown men to tears.

She went to stand up, but Shikamaru tugged on her hand. She glared fiercely down at him. Her expression seemed to seethe _how dare you touch me_.

"I think they copied my order and served it twice."

"So?" she demanded. "I don't _like_ mackerel. This isn't what I ordered."

"Now we'll have left-overs. I'll get the manager." He waved his arm, and a waiter bustled over to them.

"Is something wrong, sir?"

"Yes," said Temari immediately, "you got my order wrong."

"My apologies, ma'am!" The waiter bowed deeply. "What did you order?"

"The chestnut _flounder_."

"We'll get that to you right away! I will also take 20% off your check for the bother, Temari-sama. Please excuse me."

Temari deflated, her dark blue eyes sliding to Shikamaru. "I hate you."

"No, you don't."

She sighed loudly.

He laughed at her, mockingly, in a way that made Kankuro frown, because she didn't hit him.

He was frowning, his arms crossed, but his displeasure was quickly giving way to shock. Beside him, a quick look told him Gaara also looked surprised.

"What?" Temari demanded at their looks of mutual surprise. "Flounder isn't _that_ bad."

She thought they were upset because she'd decided _flounder_ was okay to eat. Christ.

"It's not that," Gaara spoke, always the calmer of the two, working to regain his normal facial expression. "It's just that… We've never seen you _not_ get mad at a waiter."

Temari crossed her arms. "Well… That one was nice."

Shikamaru's arm was around her now, his elbow lazily resting at the curve of her neck. And she wasn't objecting to the slightly-limiting position, either, as she used to with past boyfriends. _How do you expect me to _move_ if you've got your arm around me_? Her words were so fresh in Kankuro's mind, though they were a few years old. She'd sounded so angry. _That_ was the sister he knew.

Not this new person who smiled at nothing and touched another human being so casually.

"Wow," muttered Kankuro, anything but awed.

"What?" she demanded. Oh, _there_ was her temper…

"Nothing." Kankuro muttered, looking dejected and spiteful and for all the world like someone had just told him he couldn't ever use another puppet again.

"I think it's great." said Gaara, obviously confused, looking back and forth between his older siblings. "If he calms her down, that's all the better- Don't you think, Kankuro?"

"Calms me down? What the hell do you _mean_ he calms me down? I'm not a child." She had crossed her arms again, and her eyes were beginning to narrow. Kankuro found himself hoping she got pissed off again.

"I know that." Gaara said clearly. "That's not what I'm saying."

Temari took a deep breath, ticking off Kankuro even more. "Then what _are_ you saying?"

"That," he said after a moment, working to keep his own anger in check, staring hard at Temari and then harder at Shikamaru. "You just don't seem as angry."

"Oh." Temari glanced at Shikamaru, and Kankuro very distinctly saw something pass between them, some kind of understanding. They had achieved a short conversation without voice or movement. It ticked him off even further, just because _anything_ would by this point.

"Well," she said finally, reaching absently up to Shikamaru's hand and twining their fingers-it must have been horribly uncomfortable for their wrists, but if anything it seemed to brighten up their faces-as she spoke, "I guess I'm not. I'm just… not."

"Sort of like how Naruto helped me." Nodded Gaara. Fucking Gaara, being able to _understand _this. That was something Kankuro couldn't do at all.

"Except you never had sex with Naruto." Muttered the middle sibling darkly, unsure what fodder would piss his sister off enough for him to see something he recognized in her.

"... Was I supposed to?"

Temari immediately dissolved into loud laughter, and, to his surprise, there went Shikamaru as well. Not as loud as Temari, but no one ever quite was, but laughing all the same. In his stupid, raspy voice his sister apparently found attractive.

Gaara's face was absolutely _priceless_, his mouth slightly open and his brow furrowed. His expressions were exaggerated to compensate, Kankuro knew, but it was just too much.

_Fuck it_, he thought, as he began to laugh as well. Socially-inept brothers weren't the worst thing in the world.

"I _really_ don't get it." Explained Gaara, whose facial expression now suggested he was trying to learn a complicated algorithm. "Why would I have sex with Naruto?"

That sent the three of them into more laughter.

Shikamaru was the first to recover. In the background, Temari's and Kankuro's laughter were strangely complimentary of each other, not musical in any way, but loud and care free in a way Shikamaru doubted Gaara could ever achieve.

"You wouldn't." He reassured the Kazekage, wrapping his arm around Temari's waist, who had apparently found grounds to renew her laughter now, and had rolled helplessly into him, her face in his shoulder, fighting helplessly to regian control. "That's why it's funny."

"Ah," said Gaara, "so is it funny that you and my sister have sex?"

The boisterous mood popped like a bubble.

"That," said Kankuro, who despite his cheeks still visibly red beneath his face paint, "is not funny in the slightest." He turned his glare firmly on his older sister. _So close_. He'd been _so close_ to letting this whole thing pass.

He saw realization pass over her face, but rather than move away from her boyfriend, as he'd hoped she would do, she stayed exactly where she was, too close, too comfortable, too intimate with a _Konoha_ shinobi.

She was already gone, wasn't she? No amount of "I missed you"s or "Your hair is _awful_"s from her meant she was coming back with them. And his antagonizing Shikamaru probably wasn't helping anything.

With raging still roiling in his gut, he tried to swallow his pride. "How's your fan?"

Temari studied him for a moment, then shrugged. He could see her trying to figure him out. "Same condition. It's being looked at next week by the best Ironsmith in the village." He saw his sister turn to the Konoha man next to her, saw the smile pull up her mouth, saw some of the tension leave her frame. "Shikamaru says he's the best. He took his sensei's weapons there and got them fitted for his hands."

"They're immaculate," Shikamaru added, managing to _somehow_ tear his gaze from Temari to look at her brothers, since he'd scarcely looked anywhere else this whole dinner, he probably had some kind of medical condition. "I know he'll fix her fan."

"See that he does." Gaara commanded, a bit too Kazekage-like for the dinner table, but passable just the same. "They don't make fans like that in Konoha."

Immediately, by his tone and his word choice, Kankuro knew that Gaara had figured it out, too. All four of them were intelligent, all four of them were strategists. One was a supposed-genius, though they were all talented. They had two long-range specialists, two mid-range. One used wind, one used shadows, one used sand, and one used puppets. One Kage, two Jounin, and one Chunin. Two parents between all four of them. Two brothers, one sister, one only child. One girlfriend, one boyfriend. A blonde, two brunettes, a redhead. Two Suna nin, two Konoha.

She was really leaving her village for him. She was really leaving _them_ for him, her own brothers! She'd taken care of them all their lives! Their father was never any help, their mother was dead, their uncle part of a plot to kill the youngest. It had always been Temari. And she was leaving.

The food came. Kankuro forced himself to swallow the bile rising in his throat so he could eat.

**AFTERDINNER**

Things had gone well, over all. There were a few instances where Shikamaru was half-expecting Karosu and any of Kankuro's other puppets to come flying at him suddenly, previously disguised as seemingly-innocent restaurant-goers, but it hadn't ended up happening. Gaara kept giving him pointed looks-the Kazekage was not one for subtlety-and Temari kept glaring at the puppet master. Eventually, Kankuro seemed to give in.

It bothered Shikamaru the term "give in" was appropriate at all, nevermind that it was actually perfect for Kankuro's behavior. It was like he was forcing himself not to start yelling at Temari the entire time. Were Kankuro to murder him, Shikamaru thought, it would at least save Temari her pride and dignity from not being yelled at in public by her brother.

Until she started crying over her late boyfriend's corpse, that is.

Right. Thanks, genius brain.

Shikamaru was connected to Temari by their tightly-interlocked fingers, but she was talking with her brothers from the most part. And truly, he was content to watch the siblings talk. Temari got angry as often as her face lit up, which Shikamaru supposed was about how it went with siblings. He mostly just knew only children, so he hadn't had many chances at all to observe sibling dynamic.

Kankuro jibed Temari, Temari threatened him with bodily harm, Kankuro laughed, Temari reluctantly snorted, and Gaara chimed in once every so often to embarrass someone. It was a good dynamic, really. Surely better than others.

Temari and Kankuro especially were energetic people, and Shikamaru found himself empathizing with Gaara. Growing up with them couldn't have been easy (not counting the whole bijuu thing), but he'd made it and now he was both their bosses.

"You aren't trying to become the Hokage, are you, Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru blinked in surprise. "No. That would be _way_ too much trouble. What makes you say that?" If his father had recommended him even _after_ he'd expressed his wishes for him not to, he was going to have to have a few choice words with him. He didn't _care_ how much "sense it made" for the first time in his life. He didn't want to. Naruto was better for it. That was it.

Gaara shook his head once. "It's not that. I was only referring to the fact that earned a lot of credence on the battlefield, and that you probably could if you wanted."

"I don't want the job." Shikamaru stated, glad that Temari and Kankuro appeared blissfully unaware of this new conversation. "I like teaching. The kids are troublesome, but they're much better to deal with than hard-headed adults and immovable Feudal Lords."

Gaara nodded solemnly. "Also, to be honest, I'd miss Naruto."

Shikamaru smirked. "No competition here. Naruto's practically got his face on the mountain."

Gaara nodded. "That is good. Although I doubt you'll stay an instructor forever."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. "What makes you say that?"

"My sister has more than enough ambition for the both of you, but just as you've made her a bit more level-headed, I think she too will make you a little more ambitious."

The Nara shrugged uncomfortably. "That's troublesome, Gaara. Thinking about the future without any hints or strategies that might predict what the outcome is going to be is impossible. There's no point thinking about it."

"I'm hoping I get to be a better strategist." Temari piped up, switching so that she gripped his arm. She grinned at Gaara from around her boyfriend. "I can't _ever_ be up to his level, of course, but I'd get close." He gave her a half-smirk, placating, allowing himself to enjoy her grip on his bicep.

"Undoubtedly." Gaara smiled. "You know you're a keen strategist, Temari."

Shikamaru didn't detect a hint of sarcasm in the Kazekage's tone, and he smiled a little at that, too. Gaara and Temari seemed to have a more supportive relationship, with fewer jibes and more in-depth discussions between them. Kankuro seemed to be the most hot-headed, something Shikamaru would have never thought possible when he had first met Temari. But now he knew, in actuality her temper wasn't that bad. It was more about her pride.

But then, Shikamaru wasn't one to speak about pride. His own was pretty strong, too.

"Also," Temari said thoughtfully, "one day I'm going to figure out how to beat your shadow techniques."

Shikamaru raised a brow, a grin spreading across his face. She seemed so _sure_ of herself. It was _cute_. "Oh, really?"

Temari nodded confidently. "There has to be a way. I just haven't found it yet."

Shikamaru tried in vain to keep his chuckles to himself. But it was either laugh or kiss her, so he let himself laugh. He still hadn't entirely ruled out an attack from either of her brothers.

Temari hit him lightly on the head, but instead this prompted his laughter to fall out more loudly.

"I'd like to see that," he managed eventually, "considering you aren't a bijuu or ten tons." The practicality of _beating_ his shadow techniques begged the correct use of her word choice to be questioned, so he'd throw technicalities at her.

"I'll do it one day." She reassured him, smirk back on her face. "And you are going to be _stunned_."

"Actually," he mused, "I don't think I'll be very surprised at all." The word _surprise _triggered an impulse in him, and he bent to kiss her. She had about a half-second of surprise in her reaction time before she kissed him back, but he felt a sense of victory all the same. He'd managed to give her a relatively short kiss in front of her brothers, managed to come out of it unmaimed, and managed to surprise her.

He put his arm around her again, content when her own went around his waist. It was getting colder, after all, it only made sense to share body heat. He'd never complain about her touching him as long as he lived. There was something about her that made his entire body feel like it was on fire. The cold December day had nothing on them.

Not everyone seemed to agree, and Shikamaru didn't think it was merely Kankuro's intolerance for cold that had him frowning.

"Do you ever think," said Kankuro slowly, his eyes narrowed, "that you guys are too affectionate?"

"No." snapped Temari in a hard voice. But she may as well have admitted to being afraid of puppets for the look on Kankuro's face.

"It's not like you'll never see him again, sis."

"I know that."

"Then… Kami, Temari, let _go_."

Shikamaru felt her stiffen beside him, but her arm didn't move from around him. She's being stubborn, and even if, truth be told, he didn't want her to let go and he'd be surprised if her brothers' words actually got to her enough to make her let go, he was beginning to get a bad feeling.

Besides that, it was like Kankuro didn't know Temari at all, sometimes. Tell her not to do something, and it was exactly what she would do.

"No, thank you," she said stiffly, holding her chin high. It was probably some kind of ingrained posture when she was expressing her defiance, and Kami help him that was cute, too.

But somehow, adding weight to Shikamaru's theory that Kankuro didn't know his sister all that well, it seemed like Kankuro wasn't expecting such an answer.

"Come on, Temari, just let go." He insisted again, and this time Shikamaru found his arm tightening around her. What _was_ this? Some kind of blackmail? Manipulation?

"No." She hissed, and then she put her other arm around him, too.

Something changed in the air around them, Shikamaru and the infamous Sand Siblings, and suddenly his bad feeling intensified tenfold. Something was goign to break, maybe snap, maybe shatter, but something was about to change. He could sense it like the deer his clan raised could sense natural disasters. Something was coming.

"What's your fucking problem?" she hisses aggressively. "He's my _boyfriend_." There's the snap.

"I know that," returns Kankuro heatedly, eyes still narrowed. "But…" The break.

Shikamaru found his gaze drifting to Gaara. He wasn't able to ignore the feeling of impending doom at all now, and he knew Gaara could sense it, too. But there was something off in his face, in the downward tilt of his mouth. He was the most level-headed of the siblings, and he was also the most used to this kind of thing, which Shikamaru knew was not rare between the Sand Siblings. But something was different about this time.

He looked at Temari again, imagining the rage bubbling just beneath the surface. She was trying to work on being calmer, he knew, but he also knew that around her brothers, her emotions tended to be more volatile.

It was one reason she liked so much, she'd told him, he always made her feel calm and in control. But he didn't know to help her now.

"But _what_?" she hisses in a threatening voice. He can't help but notice she also sounds _threatened_.

There's another few beats of silence.

He hasn't said anything yet, not once in this whole exchange, but it's beginning to look like he's going to need to. The problem was selecting the words to say from the multitude of choices his brain had already produced and sorting through which negative consequences he was willing to live with. Obviously the ones that upset Temari the least were preferable. But that was beginning to look impossible.

Temari shifted slightly, and he thought he felt something spark in the air between the siblings. One look at Temari's face told him she was _seething_, just waiting for an excuse to be violent. The fact that Kankuro broke her fan wasn't helping anything right now.

Shikamaru thought he knew what Kankuro wanted to say. The question was whether or not the words would actually come out of his mouth. He certainly had balls to stand up to his sister like that, but saying _that_ is a whole nother level of stupid.

The silence had gone on too long, because Temari stood up straight and smirked. She thought he was backing down. Her posture relaxed and she leaned into Shikamaru a little again, opening her mouth to speak to him when her brother spoke first.

"You're a _Suna_ shinobi." And the shatter.

There it was, the very thing they'd been trying so hard to ignore for two weeks now. Her allegiance, her heritage, her home was not with him.

There was another beat, and then her arms wasn't around him anymore. She closed the short distance between herself and her brother in a flash, her hand fisting in the front of his shirt.

"You fucking _bastard_."

She talked about it to her brothers. He hadn't really known, but he had guessed. They were all close, and it was an important issue in her life. He hadn't been with her _every_ moment of every day, but the confirmation didn't surprise him.

The emotion in her voice did, though. Even after seeing her in the mornings, feeling the way she actually would snuggle into him before they went to sleep, watching her smile at him when he'd done something particularly worthy of one of her smiles, he was still surprised by her tone. He still thought of her as strong, and there's no question emotionless and strong are synonymous in his mind. It's why he can't ever be strong. Except for Temari. She felt things and she was still fierce. The anomaly in his life.

"Someone had to remind you."

There was a certain resignation to Kankuro's voice that made Shikamaru wildly think he must really love his sister.

He thought Temari was shaking, but it was hard to be sure. She was so strong. It didn't look right on her.

"You're coming home with us. You're going to live with us. In Suna. Where you belong. Bodyguard of the Kazekage. With _Suna_ team of _Suna _genin. Where you are a _Suna_ Jonin. Where you live. With your brothers. In _Suna_."

Shikamaru felt himself move forward. "That's enough." His voice was hard and he was frowning so much it almost hurt. "You don't need to-"

"Oh yes I fucking _do_. _You_ are the cause of all of this, you fucking bastard. You nearly ripped our family apart, how do you feel about that? How can you live with that? We don't_ have_ anyone else. We _need_ each other. But I have to admit," he was smirking, "it's impressive that you even got this far. I never thought my sister would fall so hard for you. You're irresponsible, weak, and there's nothing valuable about you."

The next thing Shikamaru knew-they were petty insults, he was preparing to brush them off-Temari's fist contacted with her brother's cheek.

He blew back several feet, a bruise blossoming quickly across the area.

"Shut up." Temari hissed, her voice a dangerous level of blood thirsty that made his chest ache. He much preferred her gentle, quiet tones. Her teasing laugh, the way she smiled at him when she felt like smiling, not when she had to. This tone sounded like another vocalization of physical pain, probably for her and definitely for him.

"Don't talk about him like that."

"Temari-"

Temari turned to Gaara, and again Shikamaru thought she might be shaking. "Gaara," she started, with a terribly good attempt to take a deep breath and speak steadily, "I love you. I always will. I'm so proud of you."

Gaara looked even more helpless than Shikamaru felt. He looked helpless, shocked and sad and so many other things Shikamaru never thought he'd say on the Kazekage's face. Despite that, though, he didn't raise his arms to hug his sister back. It didn't seem to disuade her, though, and she hugged him fiercely for several long moments.

She pulled back, and he could see that, rathern than help, the hug seemed to have hurt her more.

"I'm _staying_," Temari's voice was broken, and she was definitely trembling now. There were tears in her eyes, but he could honestly say he'd never seen her look stronger.

Shikamaru couldn't make himself look away from her. Puffy eyes, red face, so angry it was highly likely she was about to kill something. Her eyes were bright, not with her tears, but with the love she obviously felt for her brothers, her love for him, the catalyst of all of this, and the shatter that was no doubt destroying everything in her chest, and the chest of her brothers, too. It may have been the poor lighting, but he thought he was moisture in their eyes, too. He wasn't the only man that cried.

She probably would regard it as a moment of weakness, but he was sure she'd never looked more beautiful.

Fully expecting her anger and sadness to combine into one frightening tempest, Shikamaru set his jaw and reached for her hand. _Istincts._

She jerked, just a little, but neither did this surprise him, and then relaxed. He smiled faintly.

As they turned their backs on her brothers, Shikamaru took one last look. He wasn't nearly as practiced at reading their facial expressions as he was hers, so it was likely his assumptions may not have been entirely accurate. But it was hard to miss the tears on the Kazekage's face, harder than before, when he might have been able to convince himself he was just imagining things. They looked so out of place, like ice existing on the sun. But it was absolutely impossible to miss the fury in every inch of Kankuro, and even harder to miss the grief.

He pulled his mind away from her brothers and held her hand. She would speak when she ready, and in the mean time he would draw his conclusions.

"I need to kill something."

**ATATRAININGGROUNDONTHEOUTSKIRTSOFTHEVILLAGE**

"Ah!" She struck the tree again. She already nearly had the bark splintering, but it wasn't enough. "GAH!" Her knuckles were bloody. She didn't care. She couldn't feel them anyway.

"AH!" She kicked it and spun, nearly toppling over midair when she didn't find her balance in time. It didn't matter. "AH!" A combo, four, five, six- she kept going, as long as she could. Past fifteen, her punches started to give out. It just made her angrier, though, so she elbowed the tree instead. She rammed it with her shoulder, her knee, she kicked it. There was blood on the tree. "FUCK!" She swore, returning to punches. "FUCKING _SHIT_!" More punches, more blood, more pain. It still didn't matter. She pulled her right fist back, aiming for the spot that would finally splinter the tree. And a hand caught hers.

She whipped her head around to glare at him, and instantly opened her mouth to tell him off. But he cut her off.

"Temari."

Never before had she simultaneously so hated and loved the sound of her own name.

"You're bleeding."

A sudden gasping sound left her throat, a lot like a sob. She tried to ignore it. "I know."

The ground met her knees, and she still had to lean over. Her hands were fisting in the dirt and grass, probably infecting the wounds she'd inflicted on herself. It wasn't enough, though. Her nails went through the rocks, tearing, and eventually dug into her own palms.

"Temari."

She didn't look up this time. She couldn't. She had to cling to what little was left of her dignity to keep herself from sprinting back to her brothers and crying in front of _them_, too.

He placed a hand on the small of her back.

Just one action. That was it. No yelling, no freaking out, he just touched her.

Her entire body stilled, and then she broke.

Hot, salty tears cascaded down her nose and cheeks. She was crying, sobbing, trembling again. Hate filled her, emptied out of her, and then roared back again. Rage was on a similar cycle. And then hurt. So much fucking hurt that that she felt something tear inside her.

It hurt. It hurt so _much_. She'd spent the majority of her life running from _hurt_, and it felt like she was feeling the effects of not only what had just happened, but everything she'd forced herself to repress her entire life. It was pain like she had never known. She couldn't handle it. For the first time in her life, her body felt weak.

The next instant, she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her, lift her, and pull him to her chest. Her very first instinct was to fight it, to pull away and continue suffering on her own, pretending he couldn't see. But his arms were like a vice, and she found, past the first three seconds, that she didn't want to move, anyway. She _really_ didn't want to move.

She turned and buried her face in his skin, clutching at him, sobbing openly into his shoulder. At first, she tried to hold back a little, retain at least _some_ of her obliterated dignity. Past thirty seconds, this time, which was slightly longer than three, she stopped attempting to be strong, and she let herself cry.

Eventually, and all the rage, hate, and pain left her.

When she was finally, finally done, she pulled back and looked at him.

"You're crying." His voice cracked. She'd upset him, another noteworthy thing she'd done wrong today.

"There's blood on your shirt." Her own strained, worn from her screaming.

"Sorry," she said, the word leaking out without permission. It sounded so _weak_. _She_ sounded so weak.

"Don't be." His voice was sad, but his fierceness was unmistakable. It made her falter, made her feel like she should question every second of her life she'd spent ignoring her feelings for him, telling herself they'd go away, that it was just hormones. What had she been _doing_ the last three years?

It occurred to her that she could say something just now, something she'd never before said in her life, and it wouldn't be a lie. It wouldn't be forced out, it wouldn't be sarcastic; it would be nothing but true. Achingly, beautifully, heart-wrenchingly true.

She let her lips lifted in a traitorous, abhorrently ridiculous smile.

"I'm in love with you." Her voice cracked, teemed with emotion, and then spilled out into the air. She felt warm, whole, curiously comfortable with everything that had just happened, all the weakness he had just shown. But that was the influence of his smile.

"I'm in love with you." He returned, and she gasped a _giddy_ laugh. She threw her arms around him, with no plans to ever move again, and when he hugged her back, she felt herself relax completely. _Love. They were in love_.

**ATSHIKAMARU'SHOUSE**

"I'm going to take a shower."

He nodded.

She hadn't let go of him since they'd walked back to his house, and she didn't know what was making him think she wanted to now. He looked decidedly uncomfortable at the thought as well, though, which made her smile.

"Are you coming?" She demanded, looking at him like he was stupid.

He looked just a tiny bit startled, only for half a second, and then nodded.

She took his hand and led him into the bathroom. It was still across the hall from his bedroom, he still lived with his parents, but he loved her now. And she loved him. Outloud.

He seemed a bit stiff, too mechanical to be able to properly rely on his body. She wondered if it was effecting his brain, too, or if it was because he suddenly had so much to process. She wondered if it was truly the events of today and a result of how tired he must be or if it was the prospect of being in the shower with her. She found herself wishing for the latter. She was _tired _of emotions, frankly, and could do with some _good_ physical representation.

But not sex. Having sex, Temari thought, is different from seeing someone naked.

It wasn't as if he would accidentally walk in on her, either. This was a direct, open invitation where she had basically given him permission to stare. They wouldn't be in the act of anything, too busy to notice a scar there, a birthmark here, some freckles, some dirt. Some blood.

Deciding she was going to have to take charge, she unzipped his vest. He shrugged his shoulders out of it, which she took to mean he was on board. He was just thinking too much. She tugged at the mesh and pulled it high. His chest and torso were bare, but he still seemed to be lost in his thoughts.

She debated for half a moment before pulling the obi away from her body and letting the dress fall open. She folded it, set it on the toilet, and then turned back to look at him, hands on her hips.

There was definitely something more in his eyes now, but he definitely still wasn't all here.

The sound of his zipper going down seemed to echo in the relatively small bathroom. Temari took a moment to turn on the shower. It was hot, probably too hot, but at least it was louder now. And the steam made her strangely more comfortable.

Just as she went to turn back around, his hands caught her hips and her next breath came out raggedly. She paused, as she always did when he touched her like this, so humanely and imperfectly and with so much direction it made her question why she hadn't been letting him touch her for years, and tried not to press more of her skin against his skin. After a moment, still fighting, one hand left her hip and unhooked her bra. He caught it as it fell and tossed it away.

It was a fight lost at the nonchalance with which he removed it. She took a half step back, her bare back hitting his bare chest.

His breath was against her ear and she turned her head, wanting to see the look in his eyes. He was already looking at her, but she could tell he was still deep in thought. Functioning, but not listening.

Spikes of anger poked her, and she moved away to pull her underwear down her legs without hesitation. She got in and pulled the door closed. He would come in when he was ready.

The water stung, but turning down the temperature didn't do much to help. After a few seconds, she couldn't help the little hiss of pain that left her lips.

The force with which he opened the door surprised her. He looked worried.

She looked confused. "I'm fine."

He didn't speak, just shed his own underwear and stepped in behind her.

"The water stings."

He didn't say anything, so she focused on her knuckles. They were bruised and swollen, that was obvious even underneath the caked blood. Shikamaru would probably want her to go see Sakura. But that would involve questions, questions she was sure she didn't want to answer. She hadn't even answered _his_ questions-and she knew he had a lot of them-and she felt it wasn't right to answer Sakura's before his.

He, who had seen her in her very weakest moment and had still held her hand.

A wave of affection rose up within her, and she turned back and wrapped her slender arms around his waist. His skin was only a little damp, much more warm than wet, and it wasn't long at all before his arms knotted at her waist. Her cheek was pressed quite comfortably against his shoulder, and another little smile was pulling on her mouth.

He loved her.

Her eyes slipped shut, content to touch him intimately and offer no explanation. It didn't hurt so much anymore.

She felt him shift, turning them so his back was to the water. He was wetter now, and she was colder, but she didn't move. She was far too content where she was, breathing and existing with him, touching his skin, feeling him breathe, taking in the fact that they were in a shower together, and they weren't having sex.

When his hands suddenly left her skin, she immediately sparked back to life. "Hey-"

Her protest was feeble and unnecessary. He was only inspecting her hands.

Several of the longest moments of absolute silence, but for the running water, passed. Then he intertwined their fingers. "I want you to see Sakura."

She nodded despite her resolve. She could give him an appointment with his friend.

"How do you think Sakura is? She seemed really messed up."

Shikamaru's eyes narrowed suddenly. Almost a rage, but something more calculating. Usually the kind of expression he reserved for battle. The sort of thing she'd seen on his face often the last few weeks of the war. It had never been directed at her.

"I know you have a lot of questions. And I will answer them all. But Shikamaru, there is dirt under my fingernails, blood in my hair, and I can't really feel my hands all that well so I would like to be clean first. Is that understood?"

That, of all things, earned her a smile.

They took turns with the water. Their hair was washed, their bodies cleaned, and she even held him a bit more. Shikamaru took long showers, and right now that suited Temari just fine.

Even so, they did eventually find themselves getting out. The towels-they were absurdly fluffy in the Nara household-were green, a deep forest green that had long stopped reminding Temari of anything but the Naras. One was around her waist and one was wrapped up in her hair. Shikamaru had one around his waist, his hair down touching his shoulders. He looked good in green. She took a moment to observe this fact, unabashedly staring.

He was looking too-she could tell by the heat that spiked where he stared for too long-and she wondered when they had become this sort of couple. Not that long ago, they hadn't been a couple at all, and now they were the sort of couple who _stared_ at each other. She turned toward the door, and his hand came to gently rest at the small of her back.. She pushed open the door and stepped out, nearly running into Yoshino Nara. The surprise was evident on her face, but Temari saw no anger.

Despite the event with her brothers that felt as if she had clawed her own heart of her chest, Temari felt the heat rise to her cheeks.

"Good evening," she managed.

Yoshino smiled slowly. "Good evening." She didn't say anything more. Her slippers padded softly down the hallway.

She felt Shikamaru exhale, and then felt herself smile.

They were barely sat on his bed, dressed now, both fortunately and unfortunately, before she spoke again. "I'm expecting you to talk a lot. You've been really quiet and I don't like it."

He smiled and nodded. He had her hands, but it wasn't exactly like he was holding them. Nor was it exactly like their fingers were twined together. Their palms weren't together, either. He just had her hands. In his hands. Just touching.

"Oh, and I never want you to stop touching me in public. I don't give a shit if it's inappropriate. You almost died. I almost died. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. I'm affectionate and brazen and loud and fuck anyone that-"

His lips were on hers. Out of instinct, she parted her lips, returning the kiss.

She broke it after a few moments. "Don't think you can just kiss me to shut me up."

The way he was looking at her told her he believed he very much could. She should probably be angry. But she didn't find that she was.

**SAKURAANDSASUKESCENE**

"Do you think," started Sasuke suddenly, a kind of detached thoughtfulness to his voice that Sakura immediately wished would _go away_, "that if I'd never left, things would be different?"

This wasn't an "I wish you loved me"-she could tell right away. It was merely thoughtful. Musing. Academic. It was a like a math problem to him, or an argument of philosophy.

"It probably would have taken me longer." She said evenly. She didn't owe him the truth, but that didn't stop her from saying it. They had too much history for her to lie to him.

He didn't say anything back, so Sakura's words replayed in her head. She realized the topic was understood, even though she hadn't actually said it. She realized that Naruto deserved her to be able to say it, however hard it was. She was going to make herself start saying it. Right now.

"It probably would have taken me longer to realize I loved Naruto. That Naruto was the one who deserved my love, the one who would actually love me in return, make me a better person, the one who would always make me happy…" Her voice trailed off at the end, exposing a kind of thoughtfulness full of warmth and emotion. The complete opposite of Sasuke's.

She cocked her head at him. "All you ever did was make me cry."

She wasn't emotional. She was factual. It was a fact, objective and interpretable any other way.

"I think," mused Sasuke, still with the same detached and academic tone, "that things might have been different had I never left."

He wasn't going to let this go, was he?

"You were always going to leave." stated Sakura with a level of finality and understanding she _wished_ she had had for what felt like half her life, dealing with this for so long. "It's who you are. The Last Avenger, right? Power and revenge. Power to get your revenge. No time for anything else, anyone else. And it ended up that your brother was actually the good guy."

"Plot twist," Sakura added disdainfully.

Sasuke met her gaze. "That might have been true three years ago. I wasn't here. I was set on my revenge." He paused a moment, and Sakura suddenly felt something like terror shoot up her spine. "But I'm here now. I've gotten my revenge. My brother is dead. So are Madara and Obito. I am truly the last Uchiha."

"The Last Avenger," supplied Sakura again, feeling a bit disoriented with the amusement that was now flaring to life in her belly.

"What does all of that matter, Sakura, if I'm here now?"

"It matters because I can't trust you." Sakura frowned. "You might snap one day and use your Mangekyou on me again." She tried _hard_ not to put extra emphasis on the "again" and let it be known that she was still bitter about that, but he likely saw through her. That was one thing he had always been good at, even without his kekkai genkai. "You're not a good person. I am. It wouldn't work out."

"But I'm _trying_ to be a good person."

Sakura stared at him. "So you're telling me you like me?"

Sasuke didn't say anything.

"You're telling me you're _in love_ with me?"

He still didn't say anything.

Sakura tried again, ignoring the fear piercing her heart. "You're telling me you're using my past attraction to you to start up your clan again? Fastest and easiest root? No need to establish a new relationship, right? It makes sense, doesn't it?"

He didn't say anything, but now he wasn't meeting her eye.

"You're disgusting." She got up and left, kicked off the roof with all her might and rocketed through the night sky. She almost expected him to come after her, but he didn't. She was glad. She tried to tell herself she was glad.

All she wanted to be in Naruto's arms again, where she felt safe and loved and valued. Everything Sasuke had never and would never make her feel.

**THENEXTDAY**

It wasn't much different, Shikamaru mused. Other than being unable to use his hands as a pillow for his head, cloud-watching was much the same with Temari as without her. She had come with him on his habitual trips enough times to know how he preferred things to be, at least. Other than hold his hand and occasionally ask a philosophical question the three of them would debate for a few minutes, she didn't interrupt anything.

It was nothing short of remarkable, he was aware. If all he'd had to do back then was hold her hand to get to her be this quiet and calm, he'd have done it a long time ago.

"Chips?"

"Yeah," answered Temari, catching the bag deftly in her left hand, "thanks."

"No problem." said Chouji easily.

Shikamaru might've imagined his best friend would have a negative reaction to his being in a relationship, especially one that was so serious and so time-consuming so fast-and in at least ten scenarios he had-but Chouji seemed pretty positive about it. He even shared his chips with her, which was saying something few people realized about Chouji. In fact, he doubted Temari even knew.

She threw the bag back, which Chouji also caught skillfully. If there was one thing he would never waste, it was food.

Content to listen to the sounds of two of the most important people in his life chewing, Shikamaru stretched his neck. This was _incredibly_ relaxing. The war hadn't left time for him to do anything close to cloud watching for more than a few precious seconds, and often those seconds were time he really should not have wasted. Since the conflict had ended, he had already been cloud-watching six times, all of them with Temari, four of them with Chouji.

At first, he and his girlfriend, Temari, sister of the Kazekage, hadn't really been sure how to behave in public. They hardly knew how to behave in private, and, quite frankly, when they could stop making out long enough to learn how to do other things together it was usually forced. Luckily, the hormones had calmed down (a _little_) and they'd gone out in public. They hadn't even held hands the first time, both of them unsure how much physical affection they wanted to show in public. Even with Chouji the first time they'd just laid next to each other, and their distance apart had been greater than Shikamaru's and Chouji's.

It wasn't really ideal, though Shikamaru had considered it would come up, and for a while he thought things would go on much the same as they always had, except behind closed doors.

But then they were out walking in the village one day, someone shouted something at Shikamaru that neither of them really processed, and Temari had jumped in front of him and revealed all three stars on her fan before he'd blinked. Her instinct to protect him, while embarrassing, was somewhat touching. It was then that Shikamaru decided he wanted to hold her hand.

It was a surprisingly thoughtless action coming from him. He required only a few seconds of thought before taking her hand. She had large hands for a woman, but he found that he enjoyed holding her hand all the same. It wasn't so much _proof_ that she could really be a woman, he was far past that by now, but it was just _nice_. It felt nice.

The second surprise had been that once he took her hand she didn't seem to want to let go. She'd never told him, never explicitly stated that she was not going to let go or even that she merely did not want to, but she nonetheless did not unless she absolutely had to. There was something in the way she seemed to want to constantly be touching him that actually ended up making him feel valued and important in a way he never would've understood before the moment it happened to him. It made him want to protect her even more than he already did.

Her tendency had rubbed off on him in only a few days, and now there was scarcely a moment they were together when they _weren't _touching.

It was happening that he liked it just as much now as he did at the start. However, when he included all the _new_ things he was learning about touching her and being touched by her, those things tended to take precedence. And _those_, he found, were easily kept secret.

Sexual touches and non-sexual touches were already categories on their own, and yet he couldn't help but be impressed with how easily she separated the two. He could faultlessly read it in her eyes, too. They were so damn _blue_, but not Naruto's blue, darker and more mysterious, and, Kami help him, _alluring_. And they showed him what she was feeling every time. He had quickly learned the difference between _Touch me here_ and _Hold my hand_ and had still yet to decide on a favorite look of hers even with all the time he spent looking.

"Hey," he grunted, pleased when Temari didn't stir. She knew he wasn't speaking to her just by the tone he used. She was smart without having to think about it, instinctively. Not on his level, but then he didn't want her to be. That would have made her boring. It was damn sexy, if he was honest with himself. For Chouji's sake, he filed the information away for later. "Did you make any headway on your decision?"

Chouji's breathing seemed to miss an exhale.

Shikamaru smirked. "That's a no."

"It's not that… It's just…"

"I'm not going to tell anyone, Choui. Geez." She imitated, flashing both of them her huge smile when she sat up briefly. "I'll pretend I can't hear you if you want, though."

Shikamaru knew Chouji appreciated the offer. He did, too, actually. The softer side of Temari, which he was beginning to realize seemed to be a lot of her, made her appearances around Chouji now, too. Shikamaru was infinitely glad she seemed to like him as much as she did.

"Alright," Chouji conceded, his tone trusting, "it's about Ino." 

"Ah."

"I like her."

"Ah."

Chouji didn't speak, and Temari thought that was her cue to speak again. "I thought Shikamaru liked Ino for a while."

Chouji burst out laughing, clutching his middle, and Shikamaru sat up to stare uncomfortably at his girlfriend.

Temari grinned. "You were always with her, always complaining about her. I didn't realize until Chouji told me you complained about _me_ more than anyone else that it actually meant you liked me. To hell with Ino, you liked _me_. Although she is really pretty."

"Geez," Shikamaru rubbed the back of his neck, "I've only known her since I was born, Temari. That's weird. She's basically my sister."

"Obviously, I get that now." She threw him an eyeroll, and when her blue blue eyes landed on him again, he imagined the hairs on the back of his neck were standing up.

"Geez," he muttered again, half because he didn't know what to say when she looked at him like that and half because he had just realized he _used _to call her troublesome a hell of a lot more before he'd seen what she looked like when she smiled at him in the morning. Or used him as a pillow. Or seemed perfectly content to take up permanent residence in his neck.

He had it bad. But it could've been worse.

She kissed him quickly, and when they broke away he was smirking again. Wordlessly, they decided to lie back down.

"I've liked her ever since we were kids," Chouji confessed, seemingly unperturbed by the moment the couple next to him had just shared. "I mean… Sort of… She used to be really mean, she can still be really mean, actually, and it wasn't really until we were Genin that she was ever nice to me, and even then she was still kind of mean to me. She kept telling me to diet. And she's so _thin_. I don't know if I like that."

"But you like her?" nudged Temari. "For reasons you are now going to explain?"

Chouji nodded, his jaw set. "She's really enthusiastic about what she wants in life. She's a really good friend, even to Sakura, who she has a really complicated relationship with. She gets so _into_ flowers- You've _never_ heard a word about a flower until you've heard her talk about them, Temari, I swear, you need to ask her about them some day soon. She could probably, like, take over the world with her jutsu and instead she just wants to grow flowers and sell them to people and educate everyone about what they all mean. And she _cares_ what they all mean."

"It _is_ pretty amazing." Added Shikamaru.

Temari smiled at him, catching his eye for just a moment before redirecting her gaze skyward. "Go on, Choui."

"She_ is_ really pretty, and she's actually… She's really hard on herself, and I always want to say something about how she doesn't need to diet, and how she's so pretty already, and how she doesn't need to keep comparing herself to Sakura because she's _already_ amazing. I really think she only went into medical training just because Sakura did, but then it turned out she didn't have some natural talent or something that Sakura has and she got _really_ depressed for a few days, but then I'm also really glad she got into that, because if she had never learned it, Shikamaru and I would've died-"

"_What?!_" Temari sat bolt upright, her feet slamming into the roof.

"Shit," cursed Shikamaru, watching her eyes widen and then narrow angrily. "Temari-"

"Even he couldn't remember _everything_ that happened." Chouji muttered absently. "I'm not done talking about Ino. Lie down, alright?"

Shikamaru saw the hesitation and the indecision slide across his girlfriend's face, and then she swallowed and nodded. He didn't feel like just holding her hand anymore, but he wasn't sure what to do while she was still sitting up, still looking at him like that; he just knew more was needed in this moment, because _shit_ he had really almost died-specifically, not just fro being in war-and had forgotten to tell her about it.

When she lay down, she got on her side and put her head on his chest, with her arm lingering absently across his torso. Her ear was over right about where his heart was, he couldn't help but notice, and she was frowning now. He put his arm around her slowly, trusting the weight would help her. That was his top hypothesis, weight and sound helped her more than sight.

After a few moments, Temari spoke again, her voice a little different. "Go on, Chouji."

Chouji nodded, grunting softly in affirmation. "I'm afraid to tell her. Anyone could tell you that. I don't think she likes me, not that way. She probably just sees me as her childhood friend, like she sees Shikamaru. She's always been after _cool guys_ like Sasuke. She'd be more likely to go after Sai or even Kiba than me."

Neither statistician said something. But Chouji already knew it made practical sense.

"I'm almost positive I would ruin our friendship if I mentioned anything about it, but then that night we all went to eat we just kind of ended up the only two left at the table." Chouji was smiling now, and so was Shikamaru, just a little. "It wasn't a date by any standard, but it was really nice sitting there with her, listening to her talk about anything and everything she wanted to while I ate. I think she needs someone like that, someone like me who listens to her and supports her." Chouji's face suddenly darkened. "The last thing she needs is a guy like Sasuke."

"Sasuke is the last thing _anyone_ needs." muttered Temari.

Shikamaru could still tell she wasn't happy about the situation, and he felt the need to do _something_ again, but he was still wholly inexperienced. Instinct was only something he relied on when he was absolutely out of options, something he had only started trusting very recently, but it seemed he was going to have again just now. Well, it hadn't yet to fail him…

Trusting his instincts was hard at the best of times, but it seemed especially important now that he do the right thing. Still, he took a deep breath and moved his hand, letting his fingers idly circle her back.

It seemed to be a good idea, because even though she buried her face in his shirt momentarily, when she faced Chouji again she was wearing a small smile. _Instincts. Got to trust them more._

"Naruto really trusts Sasuke, and I really trust Naruto." said Shikamaru unsurely. "It's a major pain. Logic says we shouldn't have anything to do with him, but Naruto is going to become the Hokage in just a few weeks, so Sasuke will undoubtedly be a part of our lives, since he will be a part of Naruto's."

Temari waited a bit for Chouji to talk, and while it might not have been long enough, she had an opinion on this.

"Don't tell her."

She could feel Shikamaru looking at her strangely, but her attention was for Chouji right now.

"Why not?"

"I think it's too early. If anything, it sounds like she's maybe _starting_ to think about you that way, but if you throw this idea of you as a _boy_, and not just _Chouji_, in her face she's going to immediately retract and you'll definitely be out of luck. Shikamaru says he's sure he had a thing for me from the Chunin Exams-"

"Well-"

She ignored him. "But if you'd told me at the time I would've laughed in his face." He waited for the apologetic gesture. It didn't come. "These things take time, I guess." She frowned thoughtfully. "Don't rush anything, is what I say. But don't give up hope, either. You're a great guy, Chouji, and if it's not her, it'll be someone else."

Chouji was smiling so widely Shikamaru wondered if he might float away. He was still learning how to control his butterfly form, after all…

Without bothering to get up, Chouji rolled over Shikamaru and hugged Temari tightly.

Though she hugged him back, she was shaking with laughter. "This is _ridiculous_!"

His best friend and girlfriend were hugging. On top of him. It couldn't get much more ridiculous.

But he looked at Temari's face and he noted how happy she looked, and decided he could probably think of something. He threw one of his arms around each of them and rolled them so that Chouji was on the bottom. However, Chouji seemed to have the same idea at the same time and had rolled toward Temari. The result, though skewed in favor of Temari, ended up with all three of them a tangle of limbs and body-shaking laughter.

"You- two- are- _ridiculous_!" Gasped Temari, not bothering to try and extract herself.

"What's ridiculous?" asked Shikamaru, trying to be unaware of the way he was grinning and how surely ridiculous _he_ looked.

"This- whole _place_! Konoha! You- Konoha nin! Why- am I- moving- here- again?"

"You are?" asked Chouji in surprise, so shocked he stopped laughing.

"Apparently." Temari nodded grimly. "His entire class thinks I am, and I'm told it would be especially troublesome to defy them."

"I think it's a great idea." smiled Chouji.

Temari grinned at Chouji, and then extracted herself, dusting imaginary dust off her yukata. "Alright, let's go."

"Let's go where?" asked Shikamaru, a little wary. She had that _look_ in her eye...

"Tsuande-sama's. You can't even begin to apply for a change of alliance until a new Hokage has been tenured for six months, I know, I checked. Which means we've got to go today. Right now."

Shikamaru and Chouji wordlessly stood, the former finding it _very_ interesting that she'd looked into that previously. However, he'd ask about it later, because she was right, they did need to go see the Hokage. Such a big step, full of commitment and life-altering consequences, settled heavy, but not cumbersome in his chest. The thought of the teasing he'd be sure to endure from _literally everyone_ he knew, though, because apparently he'd been the last one to realize something, for once, that he and Temari were actually possible-

"Give me a piggy-back ride, Shikamaru."

"Are you serious?" He stared at her. "What are you, five?"

"I'll do it." Smiled Chouji.

"Yeah!" Cheered Temari, bounding to him and securing her legs around his waist and her arms around his shoulders. "You're the best, Chouji!"

"You're light. It's easy."

"Are you _sure_ none of the girls here like you? They don't know what they're missing!"

"Hey…" muttered Shikamaru indignantly, but neither of them heard him, and then they were leaping off the roof. He followed hurriedly, more than a little sullen. "You guys…"

Temari craned her neck and flashed him a smile. "Is Chouji taller than you? I think he might be…"

"I'm two centimetres taller." stated Chouji proudly.

"Ha! I knew it!" exclaimed Temari with dramatic flair Shikamaru knew was solely for the purpose of annoying him.

"What a drag." He muttered to himself, following nonetheless. It didn't help his resolve in the slightest not to break down and tell her he would do it when he, walking behind her, was at such a good angle to observe her legs. The troublesome slit in her yukata was high, and with his brain he didn't even need to be _looking_ at her legs to remember, in full, genius-level detail and clarity, what they felt like around his waist, or how her thighs quivered around his head. No matter how much he cared for Chouji, Temari was _his_ girlfriend, and the only waist he wanted those legs wrapped around was his own.

"Temari-" He opened his mouth to speak, but for the second time that day, he was cut off by a loud sound.

The Hokage building was on fire.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: This chapter has a bit of plot in it, aha! I'm working on that, I swear. I just like writing fluffy romantic scenes. This chapter contains an NSFW scene.**

**Naruto and Sakura are asleep, completely oblivious to the following events. They're newly in love, folks. And there just so happens to be a convenient arrangement of buildings so that they don't see or smell the fire-which is being taken care of, anyway.**

"Dammit!" screeched Temari, "Where is my fucking fan?!"

"Oh, that's right," she answered herself, managing an impressively loud level of sarcasm while she was throwing shuriken, "my fucking brother _broke it_!"

The shuriken hit the wall around the window she was attempting to hold up, lest it fall and aid the fire's power, and stuck. She breathed a sigh of relief. They were running, her in the lead, Chouji bringing up the rear, and try as she might to pound the pavement so as to get rid of her incredibly intense desire to murder someone, it felt as if her anger only grew with every step.

She was having a _pleasant fucking time_, dammit! With Shikamaru and Chouji, her boyfriend's best friend who did in fact like her-fucking thank you, Kankuro for putting _that_ thought into her head-and it was all relaxing and she was laughing and smiling and she felt relatively good considering the fact that Shikamaru forgot to tell her he had almost died.

Fucking _died_. Left her alone. To fight some fucking _sound ninja_, not a proper nation, he had beat when he was thirteen (technically, _she_ had been her). Kami help them all if he had really died. And he wouldn't be around to calm her, either. She'd probably end up a missing-nin as a direct result of her murderous rampage-and just when she could have stayed in Suna forever and not messed anything up! With him dead, there wouldn't have been complication to her life.

If she were perfectly honest-not blunt, which she often was, but honest which implied a certain amount of rightful truth and a calmness-she knew that the trees, the weather, nothing had as much of an impact on her decision as Shikamaru did. She could have continued as the Ambassador, with a new guide, for the rest of her life and thoroughly enjoyed her visits to Konohagakure simply because it was so different from Suangakure.

But _him_. He had changed everything.

"Chouji," Shikamaru commanded, and the authority and grace of his voice caught her off guard, "use your jutsu and expand to look if anyone is trapped in the upper levels."

Chouji did as Shikamaru said without a second thought. Temari watched him grow, and then looked to Shikamaru. She didn't have longer than a second to meet his gaze before there was another explosion.

"Dammit!" she heard Shikamaru curse, leaping to the side to avoid the glass that was raining down upon them. Temari moved as well, cursing the fact that had she had her fan they wouldn't have had to move. More shinobi were pouring in every second, yelling about Hokage-sama and entering the burning building recklessly, and now she and Shikamaru were separated.

Unpleasant at the best of times, now Temari became abruptly aware of the fact that his presence was perhaps the only thing keeping her from losing it completely. She did not _do_ useless, dammit!

All around her, water-style shinobi were working together to put out the flames, earth style shinobi were pouring mud onto the foundation, hoping to keep the building from collapsing, probably, since Temari vaguely remembered something about it being the original from Hashirama Senju's time, and even other wind style users, like herself, who were usually so powerless against fire, were working to keep the fire from spreading to the hospital.

With nothing to do, Temari couldn't help but notice how brightly the flames burned in the darkness.

"Temari!" Sakura came sprinting out of the hospital. "Can you help me out?"

"Yes!" Temari said immediately, eager to do something that was actually useful.

"Help me look for burn victims in the rubble. We didn't get here fast enough to detain the building's collapse completely, just the foundation's. We don't know if anyone got hurt in the initial explosion."

Temari grit her teeth and nodded. _Just pretend it's a mission. Pretend this is a very, very important mission. Pretend this is going to save someone's life. Pretend this is worthwhile, just as good as dispersing the flames completely with a perfectly-controlled wind blast._

Still, she was thankful Sakura had sought her out. They ran together to the rubble and began moving what they could.

Temari was strong, but of course Sakura was stronger. She had learned how to use her chakra to enhance her physical strength while Temari had never had the patience for it. She did what she could, but in the end Sakura had found the two burn victims. It was ugly, their skin was blackened and one of them was barely breathing, but at last Temari had been able to be of some use and carry a body.

"Here you go," she muttered, as soothingly as she could, "Sakura will fix you right up."

Sakura. Because Sakura was the useful one in this situation.

The two kunoichi went in the hospital and laid the men on the first two open beds available. Their condition was obviously critical. Temari realized, yet again, that she was not suited to be a Medical Ninja when the smell of their burning flash practically caused her to puke. She made efforts to breathe through her mouth.

"Thank you," Sakura nodded, "now I need to work on them. Please close the door when you leave." Without another word, the pink-haired kunoichi turned away and began to work.

Gritting her teeth, but knowing Sakura was in every way correct and thus unable to yell at her to ease some of her frustration, she jogged back outside. It didn't smell much better out here. The fire was mostly under control now, which she supposed was a good thing. She just couldn't help but feel like she should have _done_ something. She was a _Jounin_, for fuck's sake! And all she'd done was look at her boyfriend, watch his friend grow thirty feet, and carry a burn victim.

A strong surge of dislike shot through her, and she couldn't help but curse her brother. This was _his_ fucking fault, _god fucking dammit!_

"Temari-san!" Called a voice in surprise.

Turning around, Temari laid eyes on a familiar figure. "Shizune-san!" She appeared unhurt, but her face was covered in ash. "How is Hokage-sama?"

Shizune opened her mouth to respond, and then caught herself. "Shikamaru-san is already inside, looking into the cause of the fire."

She felt herself bristle. She was _her own fucking person, dammit! _Just because she was fucking him did not mean she needed to know where he was every second of every day! And it definitely didn't mean she was about to ask about him and couldn't now!

"I have to go." Shizune dashed away, back into the building.

Well, _she_ was smart, too! She could help Shikamaru figure this out! They worked well together; she would be useful for him!

She made to walk in the building, too, but a hand on her arm stopped her. A hand with a grip too tight to be innocent. A grip that told her she had done something wrong.

"I'm sorry, Temari-san. But the fact remains that you are not a shinobi of Konoha. Protocol dictates that we cannot trust you in this situation." The jounin, close to the Hokage obviously, for he seemed paler than usual, although fucking _everybody_ was pale in Konoha, swallowed and bit his lip. "I am sorry."

Great, now she was getting fucking _sympathy_ from nameless ass-kissers. She nodded curtly and roughly shrugged her arm out of his grasp. This was it, wasn't it? She was useless because it wasn't her village. She didn't know how things worked here. She didn't have the right to help even when she could _do_ something, because she was a foreign shinobi and her loyalty was still to another Kage. If she were under orders, she could be forced to assassinate the Hokage. They couldn't trust her. She understood why, and it _still_ pissed her off beyond measure. When she realized it meant they didn't trust Gaara, too, she very nearly marched into the building to start yelling at them all for criticizing the alliance between Konoha and Suna.

Suan was _trustworthy_. _She_ was trustworthy. Why would Konoha turn away their help at a time like this?!

_Their. Ours. Because I'm still from Suna._

Positively seething, and kind of drowning in a half-and-half split of self-loathing and disgust, Temari turned and left. She didn't know where she was going, when she would arrive, or if she would even stop at all.

This was too much. She didn't belong here.

**INSIDETHEBUILDING**

"There aren't any matches left anywhere," Shikamaru spoke gruffly, "so don't bother looking."

The half a dozen or so shinobi shrugged feebly, muttering things he assumed made them feel better about being out-witted by a seventeen-year-old, but they did move on to other rooms.

Shikamaru had been summoned almost immediately as soon as he had arrived on the scene. He'd gotten separated from Temari and before he could find her again he had been asked up to the Tower to figure out how this happened. He'd started with what was logical, and when that had turned up no evidence, he'd gotten irritated.

He wasn't psychic. He wished more people knew the difference between _intelligent_ and _psychic._

Which was something Temari would have empathized with greatly had she been here. He wasn't sure why she wasn't here yet, actually. She might have gotten caught up in something, he supposed, but he was also sure she would realize where she could best be helpful soon. She would realize that because of her intelligence, the fact that her fan was missing, and the fact that they worked very well together that she should come into the building and help him.

Admittedly, it unnerved him that he couldn't see her, to the point that it made him jumpy and irritable. He was trying to keep it in check, but every time someone came through the door and it wasn't Temari, it got worse.

"Shikamaru!" A voice barked.

He very nearly whipped around and snarked "_what?!_" at the individual, so the fact that he had managed to hold his tongue was good indeed. Especially considering it was the Hokage herself.

"Godaime-sama!" Shikamaru's eyes were wide. "What-"

"I wasn't here," she predicted his question, her eyes hard, "I'm fine."

She only gave him a half-second to digest the information.

"Have you been able to find anything out?"

He shook his head. "There was no evidence left behind. All logical conclusions are just as inaccurate at this point."

"Inaccurate as what?"

He tried to repress a troublesome sigh. "I don't have any proof, but I do have a suspicion."

Tsunade-sama waited.

"I can't confirm it."

"Tell me what it is." She didn't yell, but her voice held enough authority that he felt his mouth move on its own despite his reservations.

"I think it was a jutsu." There was a beat, his mouth moved again. "There are no natural causes of fires outside of thunderstorms, so we can rule that out immediately. The next thing we have to jump to is that it was arson, a purposely-intentioned act. The fact that there are few fire jutsu-style users in Konoha, and even fewer that would dare perform a jutsu anywhere _near_ the Hokage Tower, let alone _in _it," he moved the rug aside and indicated a large scorch mark, his eyes narrowed, "points to one suspect."

"Who?"

"Sasuke Uchiha."

"But you have no proof."

"No." All he had was assumptions-logical assumptions though they were, they were still very much assumptions. He could have been dead wrong, accusing a perfectly innocent shinobi who was adjusting to a very different life from the one he had known the past five years and adding unnecessary difficulty to his reacclimation process. He was also likely to incur the wrath of Naruto and Sakura, who he never liked upsetting due to their explosive tempers, especially when it came to their former teammate, and, more recently, his deep respect for both of them.

"This is mere conjecture?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama. I am not likely to have full trust in Sasuke Uchiha again. That's why it is very likely my opinion has no basis whatsoever."

"I trust your opinion, Shikamaru."

He blinked. "Thank you."

"You never claim things without reason, and I believe firmly that reason is to be trusted."

"Thank you." He said again. "I do have a question, though, Hokage-sama, that is not exactly entirely relevant."

"What is it?"

He only hesitated half-a-second. It wasn't like they were a _secret_, anyway. "Where's Temari? I thought she'd have come in to help."

For a second, Shikamaru seriously thought Lady Tsunade was just going to walk out and leave him to his pathetic questions with her wordless demand that he get his head and his heart on different tracks. And then her gaze softened.

"She's a foreign ninja, Shikamaru. We can't rely on her in times of crisis."

Shikamaru didn't say anything, but he stopped meeting the Hokage's eye. He supposed she took that to mean the conversation was over, because when he looked up again, she was gone.

He knew, technically, very technically, that that was true. But he was also in love with her, he was also privy to the knowledge that she was going to become a shinobi of Konohagakure, and he trusted her implicitly. So he was biased. Unequivocally subjective, a point of view he was scarcely used to having.

It didn't rest well with him. Objectivity was the one constant-other than missions-in his life, but it appeared Temari was disturbing that, too.

Unbidden, a small smile crept onto his face.

With a sigh (that was honestly mostly for show, even if no one was around), he stuck his hands in his pockets and headed out the door. "I guess I better find my crazy girlfriend."

At least, that had been the plan. For .3 seconds. And then his genius brain had decided Temari was really sad to leave her brothers, underneath all her anger which he was fairly confident was just easier to deal with, and that he, as the man, as someone who loved her, as the reason she was leaving her brothers in the first place, had an obligation to make her feel better. So he would get her fan fixed for her and surprise her with it.

**ATTHEIRONWORKER'S**

Locating the fan hadn't been a problem. It was kneeling against a particularly dark corner of his room, where he knew she wouldn't have to look at it and wouldn't have to be reminded it was broken. Carrying it had been the issue. He wasn't physically weak in any way, he just wasn't at all accustomed to carrying around a sixty-pound iron fan.

It was freaking _five feet _long, and he had to be extremely cautious so as not to bang it up further. He couldn't just drag it along above the ground, either, because the ground wasn't flat and it had already hit on things several times. He didn't have a strap for convenience, so that wasn't an option, either. Which meant he had to carry it resting against his shoulder, his hands gripping the bottom to secure it. It was very, _very_ cumbersome. As such, his patience was running a little thin.

"Look," Shikamaru implored, trying to be patient with this guy, "can't you fix this _today_?"

"All you young whippersnappers are the same. Impatient. Got no time for anything that doesn't happen instantly. You said your name was on the list, right? I'll get to it then."

"You can't." tried Shikamaru, who could feel his already-tentative grip on his temper slipping away rapidly. "You have to do it today. It's for my girlfriend, we're shinobi and she really, _really_ needs it back. Come on, please?"

The Ironworker sighed. "Sorry, sonny. I just can't do it today. I have a bigger problem."

Shikamaru straightened, senses on high alert. "What's the problem? Maybe I can help."

The Ironworker regarded him for several seconds, and then sighed heavily. "I guess there's no harm in telling you about it. Who did you say you were again?"

"Shikamaru Nara," the ninja responded, turning to follow the man and nearly dropping the fan in the process. _Geez_, _this is heavy_. He tried not to think about the fact that his girlfriend was physically stronger than him, and fortunately the challenge he was presented with made a welcome distraction.

"There's a reason I'm so behind on repair." The IronWorker sighed. "Name's Tetsu, by the way." Other than look briefly at Shikamaru, who apparently was failing at hiding his struggles holding the fan for so long, he kept on walking. "There's a lot of Shinobi back from the war who want their weapons fixed, sonny. Your girlfriend isn't the only one. The problem is I can't get this fire of mine to burn hotly enough. Iron has a-"

"Very high melting point." Nodded Shikamaru, setting the fan down (at fucking _last_) and looking around the fire pit. He didn't know very much about ironworking per say, but he was sure he could find a logical solution. The coals were burning, and even though there wasn't any steam in the area, Shikamaru could feel how hot it was in the room.

Tetsu watched Shikamaru warily, no doubt believing he wouldn't be able to find the problem.

Shikamaru stood up. "What do you use to shape the iron?"

Tetsu showed him his mallet, which Shikamaru examined.

"If I understand the process correctly, you have to get the iron hot enough so that it can be bent and shaped, and then, with the mallet, you apply the correct amount of pressure in the correct spots to shape it back into place."

Tetsu nodded. "Let me see the fan."

Shikamaru placed it in his hands as quickly as he could.

Tetsu started laughing. "This isn't so bad! Very minor damage. You could probably fix this yourself."

Shikamaru smiled. "Neither of us are the best with fire. Despite the small-scale damage, it won't open."

Tetsu nodded. "Even so, this is truly a nice piece of work. Where is this from?"

"Suna."

Tetsu nodded twice, and then his eyes flashed in understanding. "Oh, is your girlfriend Temari no Sabaku? Sister of the Kazekage? I heard a rumor you two were getting married!"

"Not yet," supplied Shikamaru, letting words leave his mouth quickly before his brain could start going into overdrive and so they could get to the important part of this visit, "and _definitely_ not if she doesn't get her fan fixed." Shikamaru placed a hand on his hip, surveying the room lazily. He needed some kind of dense object to fix the fan, most likely a hammer. But he didn't see one. Could it be that Tetsu had lost it, and that's why he wasn't getting through his list of clients with any speed or reliability?

But that didn't quite make sense, Shikamaru reminded himself. There must be something else going on here.

"I can't fix anything if it won't get hot enough." Tetsu muttered, seemingly let down that the two were not getting married. Again, Shikamaru didn't let himself analyze it any further than that. Too troublesome, too annoying, too many feelings.

He took another few seconds to survey the room, and then it clicked.

"Can I use that?" He pointed to a large rock in the corner.

"Well, sure, it's some sandstone my idiot delivery boy paid for along with the coal." Tetsu rolled his eyes and leaned against the wall, still holding the fan, Shikamaru noted. "It's yours."

Hiding his smirk, Shikamaru formed the seals for kage nui. In this dark room, lit only by the fire in the center, the technique was a breeze. His shadows sprang across the floor, wrapped around the boulder, and jammed it into the overhead vent. There was an awful screeching sound, but he didn't let it break his concentration. When the hunk of rock would move no more, Shikamaru broke the seal and looked at Tetsu.

Already, the room was beginning to steam up. One hand cocked on his hip, one in his pocket, Shikamaru allowed himself a smirk at Tetsu's reaction.

"I knew it!" He exclaimed, leaping up in what was apparently triumph. "Some medical ninja came by and told me that if I didn't have a vent, I would get heavy metal poisoning." He rolled his eyes. "I have been ironworking for _thirty-five_ years, and they try to tell me what to do!" He chortled, shaking his head and muttering about the impudent youth of today.

"Yeah, I'll fix her fan. Thanks, sonny."

"What time should I-"

"It'll be quick. Just stand over there. And put this on."

Shikamaru couldn't say he ever thought he'd be wearing a heavy iron mask over his face, but he could see the necessity. But this thing was heavy, too, and it was beginning to be extremely troublesome when he thought about keeping it on for however long this was going to take. What was quick to an IronWorker? A few hours?

Tetsu laid the fan out on a tarp, donned gloves and a similar face mask, and then felt the kinks in the end of Temari's fan that prevented her from opening it. He seemed pensive, but Shikamaru could have sworn he was smiling. It was good he was dedicated to his craft. Thirty-five years at something was a long time. By all odds, Shikamaru wouldn't have thirty-five years as anything other than a body. Ninja didn't typically live that long, even geniuses. Temari probably would, though. She was incredibly tough, probably too stubborn to die. If she wanted, she could probably be too stubborn to let _him_ die, too. So maybe the statistics would be wrong on this one. They didn't factor in his girlfriend.

The thought produced a reluctant smile on his face. He shifted to lounge back against the far wall, one foot pressed against it to help him balance, hands in his pockets. Maybe if he tried he could stop acting like such a girl for a _few_ minutes, at least.

Tetsu was nodding, muttering to himself, and then he pulled out what looked like a molten hot pair of plyers from a bucket Shikamaru hadn't seen before. Not a hammer, then. The tool appeared to be so hot it were almost orange, which meant it was kept near the source of the heat in the room. Somewhere hidden, which was why he hadn't been able to find it earlier.

Tetsu opened the plyers, caught on to the end of the fan, and pulled. Then he took a mallet, also from a similar location, though its color was regular, and hammered the iron a few times. Then it was back to the huge plyers, shifting slightly on the fan time and time again. This went on for several minutes, until one side was done. Flipping it over, Tetsu took a moment to survey his challenge. This was obviously the worse side, Shikamaru could tell immediately by his expression. However, that didn't seem to stop the master ironworker. If anything, the gleam in his eye meant he appreciated the challenge.

It took twice as long (which still wasn't very long at all), but in the end Tetsu was successful.

"Come over here," Tetsu said after he'd taken his mask off and placed the players back in what Shikamaru assumed was the molten solution near the coals. "And don't remove those gloves."

Tetsu opened the fan and spread it along the length of the table. It was very nearly too big, but this seemed to be just what was impressing the ironworker. "This is is some _fine_ craftsmanship. I haven't seen anything like this in years."

"Wind style is a lot more common in Suna."

"Do you think if you brought your girlfriend here she could tell me about it?"

He shrugged. It wasn't impossible. "This is supposed to be a surprise for her, and I can't guarantee when we'll stop by, but we will. Does that sound fair?"

Tetsu nodded, bringing out what looked like a scrub rag. "Sure, kid, that's fine." He looked to be polishing the fan, both the inside and the outside. "Is the middle in-laid with iron, as well?"

"I…" _That does make sense._

"That's amazing." He breathed happily. "Truly amazing. Temari-san has a _fine_ weapon."

"Second most powerful wind-type user in the entire Allied Forces." Shikamaru muttered with a hint of pride. "And even then, she's only behind Naruto."

"The next Hokage?" Tetsu looked impressed. Shikamaru nodded. "You sure know a lot of famous people, don't you, kid?"

Shikamaru shrugged.

They stood in silence for a few minutes, Tetsu polishing diligently, as if nothing could give him greate rjoy, until everything looked brand new. Whatever held the fan together was a brighter white than before, the stars a deeper purple, and the iron seemed to almost sing with its new shine. Shikamaru was impressed. He'd never really considered her tessen a thing of beauty, but seeing the way Tetsu looked at it almost made him able to see it, too.

"She's going to love it," Shikamaru told the man, bowing and taking it from his hands. "Thank you for your hard work."

"It was truly a pleasure." He confessed with a smile. "I always love working on well-made weapons."

Shikamaru reached into his pocket, setting the tail end of the fan against the ground to manage it without dropping it, and pulled out his late-sensei's weapons. "You don't remember these, do you? I was in here about two years ago, and you attuned these to my hands."

Tetsu examined the knuckle knives. "Ah, yes. That was actually much harder than fixing that fan. These are extremely specially made. Luckily, they were only a little too big for you. I didn't really do much." He handed it back to Shikamaru. "You've grown into them now, haven't you? It's vital weapons like these fit perfectly."

Shikamaru put them on and flexed his knuckles.

"Ah, yes," Tetsu sighed in appreciation. "I did do a good job."

Shikamaru smiled a bit. "Well, thank you again, but I should go take this to her."

"Of course. Stop by again some time! I have a lot of questions about that fan!"

"We will."

He'd never thought he'd be one for romantic gestures, even with the so-called, then-imagined perfect woman from his scenario. But that would be part of what made her perfect; she wouldn't expect anything big from him, even on Valentine's Day or her birthday. But Temari had changed everything, and now Shikamaru already had working plans for February and August. It was full of trouble, _she_ was full of trouble, but somehow he didn't mind. This gesture wasn't so much romantic as it was _practical_, anyway. Today, she'd really needed her fan, and she hadn't had it. As a fellow shinobi, it made _sense_ to get her fan fixed.

And then there was the subjective part of him who couldn't wait to see her face.

**INTHEHOKAGEBUILDING**

"So we don't know what happened?" asked Sakura, frowning.

Tsunade shook her head. "We have a few theories. One thing we can deduce for certain is that someone has a grudge against the Hokage, whether that be me, or you, Naruto, is uncertain. But you should be careful. You may be attacked."

"I can handle it, Tsunade-baa-chan." He reassured her easily, looking very relaxed.

Sakura was standing behind his chair, looking down at him occasionally, but mostly focusing on what her Shishou had to say. After all, she was still the Hokage. Privately, she was a little impressed with Naruto's ability to pay attention right now, because ever since yesterday when they'd officially gotten together, and had that admittedly _incredible_ make-out session, he hadn't been able to stop staring at her. She even had his hands, just to touch a part of him, really, and he hadn't looked up at her once this whole time.

Their fingers were laced, Naruto's wrists pointed up and hers pointed down. Sakura was having a tough time being as serious about this as she knew she should be, but it turned out it was incredibly difficult to stop smiling when you were _this_ happy.

"You know, you should be careful." Sakura commented, squeezing tightly for a moment. "I can't be with you every moment, and you could get hurt."

"I'll be fine, Sakura-chan," he reassured her as well, seemingly without a care in the whole entire world, squeezing back with just as much force.

Sakura sighed, looking back to Tsunade-sama. "Maybe I should just stay with him."

"That might be a good idea." Tsunade commented. "As long as you're both being vigilant, being together can only increase Naruto's odds of safety."

"Of course we'll be vigilant-" Sakura was quick to reply, but Tsunade cut her off.

"When you're not making out in the hospital for an hour, you mean."

Sakura's face turned bright red. "I- Well- Yes, Tsunade-sama, I mean-"

Though some might have doubted the possibility, Naruto's smile grew wider. "Don't worry about that, either. It was only because… It was the… passion of the moment."

Sakura kneed his chair hard, violently jostling him.

Naruto quickly cleared his throat. "We'll definitely be vigilant."

Tsunade reluctantly let herself smile. "I'm not saying this as your Hokage. I'm saying this as your Master, Sakura." She took a deep breath, and the smile seemed easier on her face now. "I'm happy for you. You seem to be good for one another. Neither of you have stopped smiling since you walked in. Or touching." Her mouth picked up at one corner, drawing her lips into a smirk. "What you two do is none of my business, just make sure it's in at least a semi-private place, okay? Trust me, there's nothing worse than being caught when you-" Tsunade cleared her throat, coughing into her fist. "Well, I'm happy for you two."

"Caught when you what?" asked Naruto, blinking.

Sakura's face was burning even more brightly red. "Don't worry, Tsunade-sama! That will definitely, absolutely, positively _not_ be happening!"

"See that it doesn't!" she barked suddenly. Apparently she was their Hokage again.

"We're looking into it. We should have more of an idea who did this soon. In the mean time, be careful, you two. If you get hurt, Naruto, it will seriously demoralize the village. We lost a lot in that war, and we need strong leadership."

Naruto nodded. "You can count on me!"

Tsunade left, and Sakura exhaled heavily, face still very red. She walked round to Naruto's front, still keeping hold of his hands. "Geez, that was really embarrassing."

Naruto nodded. "I can't believe she thought I'd let myself be attacked that easily."

Sakura forced herself to let out all her embarrassment in a laugh. "I'll be with you, so I'll heal you. You'll be safe on my watch."

"Hey," he grinned, just a little, "I'm supposed to stay stuff like that…"

"You're not the medic," Sakura grinned, changing topics. "I wish there was a chair, my legs kind of hurt." She looked around, even though she knew she wouldn't find anything. There was Tsunade-shishou's chair, she knew, but she'd only sat in it one time, and she still remembered the consequences. "I don't know _how_ many times I went up and down those stairs. Stupid flimsy elevator."

Naruto laughed, and then, before Sakura could frown at him, though he already saw it forming on her face, spoke. "You don't need a chair, Sakura-chan. You can just sit on my lap."

Sakura's face flamed scarlet again. "What?! No! Absolutely not! What if someone walks in? No one should see that, that would be really embarrassing-"

"No one's here." Naruto promised, unclasping their hands so he could spread his arms out in a welcoming gesture. "I can sense people now."

Looking at him again, she saw he had activated sage mode. She sighed, glancing warily at the door. "You better tell me if anyone is coming." She tried to sound like she meant it, but he was still grinning too much for her to tell if he was taking her seriously or not. Although, he _had_ activated sage mode, and didn't that tell her how seriously he was taking it?

"I'm only doing this because my legs hurt."

He nodded. "I'm your boyfriend, Sakura-chan, I can do things like this for you."

Sakura nodded, carefully sitting herself on her _boyfriend's_ lap. "Is this okay?"

"It's great!" He smiled widely, putting both arms around her waist. "Is this okay?"

She nodded; her voice came out a little funny. "I might fall off. That should help." She then looped her own arms around his neck, just to help her not fall off. Should he shift, or suddenly decide to get up, or something, she wanted to be able to catch herself.

This, however, she didn't have to think about at all. Heaving a great, contented sigh, she buried her face in his neck.

**OUTSIDE**

"It was the Sand!" Came the first outraged cry. "They've been here longer than anyone else! They were plotting this! Just like the Chunin Exams five years ago!"

"You're wrong." Gaara started firmly. "We were doing no such thing."

"Think about what you're saying," scoffed Kankuro, "that doesn't even make sense."

"It makes the most sense! None of us would do anything! We are all Konoha shinobi!"

"Like Nidaime Tsuchikage said, the treaty ends with the War!"

There was a rousing chorus of agreement, much to Temari's horror. Even shinobi, fellow shinobi who had fought and nearly died out there on the field with them time and time again still doubted the Sand?! She shook her head angrily, just barely repressing the urge to yell.

"Please," said Gaara, "we did not do this. Take a moment, try and relax-"

"We want them out!" bellowed the first citizen, raising his fist in the air. "If you don't go voluntarily, we will _make you_!"

A louder chorus of agreement went up, as more citizens (mostly civilians, she saw, except that one _idiot _Jounin) of Konoha joined in.

"You can't attack our Hokage and get away with it! We won't let you!"

"We refuse to be seen as a weak village! We are strong!"

A shopkeeper, one of the few who had enough stock left to still run his business, came running back into the crowd with an armful of rotten fruit. "Go back to Suna!" He yelled, winding back his arm.

Temari saw his arm wind back and felt her own feet moving.

His elbow snapped, his wrist opened, and she was sprinting.

She just made it and only had time to close her eyes before the fruit hit her square in the face.

"Temari!" shouted her brothers, surprised at her appearance, no doubt.

"You didn't need to do that, the sand would have…" No one bothered to finish the statement.

There was tomato in her hair, it was dripping down her face and into her yukata, but she didn't care. She took her hands and wiped what she could from her eyes, and then held her arms out wide. "The sand did not do anything! We have always honored our treaty with Konoha, ever since Gaara-sama took power! We have done nothing to earn your distrust!"

There was a pause in the ruckus, and for just a moment Temari thought logic had gotten through to these desperate people.

"It was the same way before the Chunin Exams, and you cost us our Hokage then, too!"

"Tsunade-sama is not dead!" Temari shouted in a strong voice. "And we did _not_ attack her!"

"We don't believe you!" Roared the ring leader, still with his arm of fruit. "Go back to Suna!"

Temari forced herself not to close her eyes and held her ground firmly. She was strong. A little rotten fruit would only damage her dignity (which was honestly still recovering, anyway). She could do this for her brothers. She owed them this much at least.

The fruit merchant's elbow snapped, and his wrist opened.

There was a _squish_, but her face had no new fruit on it.

"Shikamaru," she breathed, at once hating and loving the joy that expanded like a balloon in her chest.

He was facing away from her, but there was no mistaking his hair. Not that she could have ever mistaken him for anyone else, not ever, not with the way she knew his posture, his hands, his height, his neck, his spine, the exact way he faced people when he was annoyed with them.

"Tch," he wiped the tomato from his own face, glaring openly at the merchant. "The Sand did not do this. They are our allies."

There was a slight murmur, a question that rose up from the crowd, Why did Shikamaru just take a tomato for a foreign shinobi? Who was she to him? Had anyone ever seen him move so fast? Then they gathered themselves again, confusion giving way quickly to renewed rage.

"Then who did it?!" roared the ring leader again. "We refuse to lose our Hokage again!"

Temari thought Shikamaru seemed to hesitate, but when he spoke his voice rung clearly and loudly. "Sasuke Uchiha."

An immediate uproar went through the crowd and they began to yell amongst themselves, probably forming some kind of ridiculous attack plan involving more rotten fruit. She rolled her eyes. She could understand their plight, but rotten fruit was just a _stupid_ attack. Especially against someone who apparently had no qualms about burning down the freaking_ Hokage Tower_.

Shikamaru turned to her, seemingly unbothered by any of this.

"Are-" He seemed to think better of the question. He took the long, black something off his back (which she'd registered but failed to really notice) and offered it to her. "Here. I got this for you."

"What-?" But as soon as he placed it into her hands, she knew. She knew the feel of her most prized possession all too well, closed or open. It felt _new_. Strong and powerful and so _hers_ that her heart gave a great lurch at having been without it for so long.

Shikamaru watched her face, smiling like he had back in the ironworker's shop. Seeing how _she_ looked at the fan, now he really could imagine it as a thing of beauty-especially if it made Temari's face light up like that.

She tried to keep her voice steady, but he could still probably tell. "Three weeks?"

"I got us moved up the list. I _am_ a genius, after all."

Deciding she didn't give a fuck anymore, she kissed him full on the mouth. She would've wrapped her arms around him, too, but that would dictate letting go of her fan. And she couldn't do that quite yet.

When he pulled back, he was smiling more widely. She smiled back at him, heart pounding a little too quickly, a little too breathless for such a short kiss, and suddenly remembered her brothers.

Hands still gripping her fan, Temari turned to face Gaara and Kankuro (she was close enough to feel the heat of Shikamaru's body, and she subconsciously took a half-step back; in response, his hand skimmed the small of her back). "Are you okay?" She asked, with too much of a smile to not be considered insane.

"Of course we're okay," scoffed Kankuro, but his voice lacked any real venom. "Of course we're… Don't be stupid, it was only fruit…"

"We're fine." summarized Gaara, his eyes intently scrutinizing his sister. "You didn't have to do that."

"Especially since you're changing villages."

The absence of her suna headband sudden felt like it added twenty pounds to her shoulders. She swallowed, and Shikamaru's hand pressed more firmly at her back. Wholly unnecessary, to be certain, but it was _nice_. Nice to know he would help her, nice to know he could tell when he wasn't even facing her, nice to know that he cared. She stood tall. "You're my brothers. My village won't change that." She grinned suddenly, and spun on her heel again. In one sharp, sudden movement, so elegant that she might have been painting, she had whipped her fan out in all its glory.

"Listen up!" She shouted, immediately earning the attention of those near them. "My name is Temari, and I'm originally from Suna! I'm in love with _your_ local genius, here," she grabbed his hand, not realizing until it was already done that it meant she'd have to let go of her fan, "and I'm becoming a Konoha shinobi for him. Sunagakure and Konohagakure are going to have an alliance so strong that no one would _dare_ question it, not even you simple merchants. If you've got a problem with that, you can come talk to me!"

Whether it was the combination of her very menacing-looking fan, her over-confidence, or the volume of her words, the crowd did in fact begin to disperse, some looking impressed, some looking amused (to Shikamaru's horror), and some looking scolded.

"Woman," he sighed in irritation.

"What?" she demanded haughtily. If this was more of his sexist crap, about how only men could make declarations like that, or how it was _troublesome_ of her to be so vocal and public, she was going to hit him. (Which she could _do_ now, because she had her fan again!)

Instead, with no warning whatsoever, he grabbed her and kissed her. Mercilessly, both of his arms went around her and he fucking _dipped_ her. He kissed her hard, intently, like he'd actually _liked_ her declaration, and she tried to kiss him back just as thoroughly despite her surprise

She quickly got lost in the sensations of kissing him, and her arms wound around him in an attempt to deepen the kiss. Her fan fell with a clatter, though not very far at all, as he'd fucking _dipped_ her, breaking the moment instantly.

It hadn't been more than a few seconds at most, but it wasn't hard to tell he'd taken her breath away. "I hate you," she told him, managing nothing more than a pout.

"You can let go," he smirked.

"I would," she sighed, "but I can't."

"And why is that?"

"I am fairly certain I am unable able to walk at the present time."

A cocky smirk spread over his face. She wanted to roll her eyes, really she did, but she didn't find she was able to do that, either. He was so _strong_, and he'd done something romantic and possessive in public! It was very unexpected of him, and very, _very_ hot.

"I had to feel like a man again." He informed her, his voice low and deep, his eyes focused solely on her. It was so intense that Temari barely managed to repress a shudder. She'd been able to hide that reaction-maybe-but she could feel heat pooling in her belly. She leant to kiss him again when her brother cleared his throat.

"That's my sister." Gaara stated plainly.

Temari laughed, missing his mouth so that her head was buried in his neck. "Sorry." She muttered, and Shikamaru was glad she didn't sound sorry at all. He also noticed her arms were still around him, and so he didn't bother moving his from around her.

"Sorry," he echoed, sounding possibly even less sorry than she had.

There was a scuffle, like shoes hitting pavement when someone didn't bother to pick their feet up enough when they walked, and then Kankuro was holding out her fan to her.

"Here," he muttered, more relieved than he'd like to admit when she extracted herself from Shikamaru.

She nodded, quickly taking her tessen back. She didn't really want Kankuro touching it at all, but she could appreciate that he had picked it up for her.

Propping it against her shoulder, she slipped her arm around Shikamaru's waist. When his arm went around her as well, she smiled easily at her brothers.

"Don't say I never did anything for you." The double-meaning was something that wasn't lost on even Shikamaru, who picked it up easily only from his girlfriend's tone.

"We would never," said Kankuro, "you did everything for us."

"Suna will be sad to lose you as an asset to the village, but it will not compare to how much I will miss my sister."

Temari smiled widely. "That's so sweet, Gaara!"

"I said something nice, too!"

"You broke my fan!" Temari reminded him, frowning more than smiling now.

"Tch," Kankuro muttered. "We're leaving tomorrow morning."

"Are the Reformation Talks-"

"Just about. But we can't stay here anymore. We've got to get back to Suna. They need their Kage."

"I'll come to see you off." She promised, smiling again.

"You better." muttered Kankuro.

"See you tomorrow." said Gaara, offering a smile before he and Kankuro walked away.

"Let's go, Shikamaru," Temari said confidently, already walking in the direction of his house.

"We've both got tomato on our faces. My mother is going to ask."

"We'll have to make sure she doesn't see us, then. It wasn't in my plan to be seen, anyway. Your window's open, right?"

"Probably, why-"

She looked at him, opened her mouth to say something, and then closed it again. "If I start talking about it, I won't be able to stop myself, and I am _not_ getting fucked in public, do you hear me, Nara?"

"Loud and clear." He responded, voice abruptly deep again, and this time Temari didn't bother trying to repress her shudder. Instead, she offered him a smirk.

"You've got a really sexy voice, did you know that?"

"I've heard," he muttered dryly, "some woman who was pretty much the walking definition of sexy told me."

It felt like a fire now, burning throughout her entire body. She wanted him, _badly_. Him and all his stupid, vaguely-chauvinistic and unnecessary displays of masculinity.

**BACKINSHIKAMARU'SROOM**

"Did you just _tear_ my vest?"

"I'll get you another one." She promised, reattaching her mouth to his and flattening her body against his. She began to grind her hips, smirking at his body's reaction.

He grabbed her hips possessively, already mirroring her movements. "_Shit_, Temari."

"You're," she kissed him quickly, "the one who," she gasped brokenly, not even bothering to hold it back, "fucking _dipped_ me."

He grunted, already able to feel the throbbing in his dick. "You were being _so_ much trouble. I had to do something."

"Do something _now_ and get this fucking yukata off-" Before the words were out of her mouth completely, her yukata was ripped clean off her body. "Did you just-"

"I'll get you another one." He promised, doing the same thing with her panties.

No sooner were they off her legs did she start at his pants, shoving both of his remaining articles of clothing down at the same time. She smirked at him, and he smirked back, meeting eyes as she lowered herself onto him.

Just from the initial feeling, she moaned loudly. She always felt such a heavy and uncomfortable pressure when she was turned on but he wasn't inside her, so the first moment his length filled her up every time felt like such _bliss_. And the best part was, it was only the beginning.

She began to rock back and forth, erratically bouncing, it was true, but she was so fucking turned on that she couldn't help herself.

He kissed her suddenly, and for the moment she surrendered control to him. His tongue was utterly _fantastic_, and the way he kissed her with such confidence, like he knew he was about to make her come just from that alone, left her breaking the kiss to whimper.

Tonight, it seemed that whimper made something in Shikamaru snap. Without warning, he roughly flipped them over.

Her back hit the mattress, a surprised gasp emitting from her throat, and then he attacked her neck, nipping and sucking as he saw fit, his hips driving into her time and time again. She moaned brokenly, letting her fingernails dig into his back.

Eventually, the pressure got to be too much for him, as well, because he was unable to do anything other than stare at her.

He was pounding so _deeply_ into her that she was already seeing stars. Her fingernails were drawing scars down his back, her voice continually fluctuating between octaves. "Oh, _God_," she moaned, "oh, Shikamaru, oh _God_."

He opened his mouth to grunt, but a low moan escaped him instead. "Shit," he gasped, losing rhythm for a moment. She leaned up to kiss him, again surprised (she was nearly always surprised) at how hard he kissed her back. His tongue was unapologetic, sweeping across hers, claiming her lips like he knew he'd never have another challenge for them as long as he lived. The most sexy thing about it was he was right, that he could get all that from their kiss.

When he broke it, he had regained control, although he was a bit rougher now.

"Your legs," he groaned, a half-order half-plea.

She wrapped them completely around his waist, smirking. On his next thrust, they both moaned together at the new angle this provided them. He was so fucking _deep_ inside her that she scarcely remembered what it was like to not be in the middle of sex.

"Harder," she gasped, raising her hips up to meet his thrusts.

He complied, slamming into her time and time again, somehow never managing to lose his pattern, or the warm intensity burning in his eyes.

It was all so pleasurable, like riding the high of ecstasy on a cresting wave, but it had gone on too long. She was desperate for it all to be over, because it was too much. Too amazing, too long- she couldn't _stand_ it. Wildly, she nipped his ear, moaning again feebly, his name through barely-parted lips.

"Temari," he returned, gasping and moaning at the same time, "Temari, _fuck_."

That was the final straw, hearing him say her name in such a desperate, needy voice. With a shock she felt down to her toes, something inside her exploded. The shock rippled over her skin, starting from a place deep inside her, a place only he had ever touched, and then echoing time and time again over every nerve she had, and his name escaped brokenly in a scream.

He finished right after her, and she imagined she could see the little explosions dancing along his own skin. But that's how her brain was after sex, visual and imaginative and altogether ridiculous.

Surprising her again, her name came from his throat like a bellow, and now she was _positive_, post-sex adled brain or not, that she could physically _see_ every atom in him contract, still, and then burst in pleasure.

A second orgasm rippled through her, not as powerful as the first, but enough to make her gasp just the same. That fucking _bastard_ had given her two orgasms, one after the other.

He gave a grunt of surprise, which quickly turned into a pleased sound. When she opened her eyes again, the question had faded from his face and it was replaced by a wide, cocky smirk.

For some _stupid fucking reason_, he went to roll off her, so she locked her arms and legs around him. "Don't you _dare_."

Her voice would probably be more intimidating if it wasn't so damn breathy, if she was wearing even a stitch of clothing. Just the same, he didn't move.

But that smile he kept looking at her with did absolutely nothing to help her not sound breathless. It quickly turned into a smirk, though, even through his heaving chest and pink face. "Maybe I should get tomatoes thrown at me more often."

She tried to get enough breath to say it all at once. "That'll only work if they're aimed at me."

"I'll keep my eye out."

She laughed despite herself, sounding incredibly breathless to her owns ears _still_ despite the minute or so it had been just laying here with him, and closed her eyes. One hand slid up his back to his neck, just kind of holding him near her so he wouldn't get any _fucking stupid_ ideas about moving away again.

With her eyes closed, she expected him to do what he always did, slip into her neck himself so they could hold each other and breathe together, skin to skin. Instead, he shocked her _again_ and rested his forehead against hers. When she opened her eyes, she saw he was still staring at her.

"It's like you've never seen me naked before." she teased, her voice a bit less breathless now.

"I might as well haven't," he muttered, "it's not like I ever get used to it."

She smiled lightly. "Careful, or I'll start expecting you to say things like that every time we do this."

"Tch." came his usual response, but something about it sounded different to Temari. It _could_ be that it came out around a grin instead of a frown, she reasoned, but still, there was still something… "We'll see."

She laughed, loudly, and kissed him. "It is up to the man to be romantic, you know."

"Tch," he said again, searing his mouth lazily to hers, presumably so he wouldn't have to respond. But she wasn't complaining.

**SAKURA'SDREAM**

_She only knew where she was in a vague way, but she felt safe, so she didn't worry about it. She felt very safe, protected, like nothing in the world could harm her so long as she was here. In his arms._

_She sighed happily, nuzzling into his neck._

_An amused smirk greeted her when she opened her eyes again._

"_Shut up," she told him fondly, "you know I like to cuddle."_

"_I know," he responded, "and it's still weird."_

"_Hey-" she didn't get the chance to respond before his mouth found hers. As she always did, she melted under his touch. Her arms locked around his neck and she kissed back for everything she was worth, pressing herself firmly against him. Nipping at his mouth, she was quickly rewarded with him pulling her more tightly to him._

_The feeling of her breasts pressed against the hard lines of his pale chest excited her, and a little sound snuck out of her throat. As though this encouraged him, his mouth traveled down her neck and sucked relentlessly on her pulsepoint._

_Sakura squirmed. "Hey- Hey- Sasuke, stop-"_

"_Mmm," was her response as he nipped. "Why?"_

"_Because I want you to-" her voice was breathy and she had a serious oxygen deficiency. She couldn't get out the complete sentence. Before she could finish, he spoke again._

"_You like this, Sakura. I can tell." His free hand wrapped around her thigh and traveled up her leg. One long finger brushed against her center and she gasped again. "See?"_

"_Sasuke…"_

"_You're wet for me," his voice was almost commanding, "shh, just let me-"_

"_Sasuke!" She found enough presence of mind to push him back. "I said no!"_

"_Hn," he was scowling now, his gaze unimpressed and locked on hers._

"_What happened?" he asked again after a moment, feigning disinterest._

"_Nothing happened." She scowled right back at him. "I just don't want to."_

_He didn't say anything more, though his displeasure was clearly written across his face, and she crossed her arms and stood up. "I never should've broken up with Naruto."_

_His eyes flashed dangerously-as they always did when they had this fight-and Sakura was painfully reminded of him using his Genjutsu on her. He had punched her right through the heart. It had been an illusion, but it had felt so real. She could remember the feeling without much effort at all, and every time she saw his eyes flash red, the monstrosity of that moment dug its claws still more tightly into her subconscious._

"_The dobe is too busy for a girlfriend, you know that. And besides, it's not like you ever did anything together."_

_Unfortunately, he was right. Still, there was no doubt in Sakura's mind that he would've been gentle about it, and sweet, and that their first time together would have topped hers and Sasuke's. Just imagining how sweet he would have been, making her laugh right in the middle of everything, assuaging any insecurities she may have had about her body with sweet kisses, how gentle he would have been through it all, how he would have made sure she was enjoying herself… And she thought about the way he felt against her the few times they'd made out long enough to get that far, the primal groan in his tone the one or two times she had felt daring enough to roll her hips…_

_That turned her on more, and Sasuke mistook the look in her eye._

"_Now you're thinking clearly, come here…"_

_Sakura sighed. If she wasn't good enough for Naruto back then, there was no way she was good enough for him now. She was practically a whore. She had left him for his best friend, and now she let him do things to her even though she didn't really want him to, all while thinking about Naruto._

_She _never_ should've broken up with him…._

Sakura sat bolt upright with a gasp, clutching her chest. She was breathing heavily and there were tears in her eyes, a sense of foreboding and panic filling her so completely that she wondered if she would have another panic attack. But in just a few minutes, her breathing calmed.

She tried to think rationally.

_Obviously_ that dream was her brain's idea of the worst thing that could possibly happen. And it was pretty bad. Having broken Naruto's heart, she then jumped into dating his best friend, who actually… _sexually abused_ her. Even worse, while they _did things_ together she kept thinking of Naruto. Was _that_ her brain's way of telling her what that unfamiliar feeling in her belly had been at the hospital? A sexual feeling? Had… had Naruto turned her on?

Her face flamed scarlet and Sakura quickly snatched her pillow up and hid her face in it. _Kami!_ She was sure she'd never blushed so violently in her life!

From the safety of her pillow, Sakura examined her feelings further. It seemed, if nothing else, _likely_ that that had been her body's sexual reaction to making out with him. So yes, yes it seemed possible, if not probable, that Naruto had turned her on.

She meant to stop thinking about it right there, having already reached a conclusion, but her brain was remembering now. His mouth had been so gentle, and at first she had assumed it was his inexperience shining through, but even after the first few minutes when they were more or less used to each other's lips he remained gentle. His tongue had been positively tentative and it had still made her shudder, still made her arch into him and gasp quietly. When his hands had left her back, one settling at her hip and the other in her hair, Sakura found herself whimpering and attempting to press herself closer to him still. His muscles were so defined, and something inside of her ached to feel his skin against hers...

Knowing instinctively she wouldn't be able to sleep now, Sakura hopped out of bed, dropping her pillow, and grabbed a jacket. It was November, and it was freezing at night- especially this time of night. Naruto probably wouldn't appreciate the wake-up call, but even as she was able to recognize that, the thought that he would welcome her in anyway made her long to be with him all the more.

Slipping on shoes, she was out the window in only a few more seconds. Despite her remembering a jacket, it was still absolutely freezing in the three-am Winter air, and it pushed her to move faster. But then her quickness made the wind whip more fiercely against her face, which made her want to slow down.

In the end, it was an insufferable few minutes to his apartment, but eventually, she made it.

To her immense relief-it was less about seeing him now and more about the warmth-the window was open. She hopped in without thought and then slammed the window shut. He had had it _open_! In _November_! What was he, a freaking _space heater_?

Yes, Sakura quickly remembered, he kind of was.

She dropped her jacket and shoes in the corner of the room and then plodded back over to him, rubbing her arms.

"Naruto," she whispered, attempting to be gentle before she lost her patience and forced her way into the bed with him.

"Naruto," she said a little louder, still to no avail.

Forcing her way in was still an option, but he was splayed all over the place, and if she wanted his warmth, he would have to wake up and make the decision to hold her. She didn't really _want_ to yell, though, as the possibility of waking up a neighbor was high. She didn't quite have a "low" setting when it came to yelling.

She sighed, wracking her brain. When a solution occurred to her, she found a grin pulling up her mouth. It was, of course, completely ridiculous, as all three am ideas,, but maybe it would work. He _did_ seem to sleep so deeply that he had selective hearing, so saying something particularly selective seemed promising. Besides, she was still cold and she wanted to snuggle.

"Sakura's boyfriend." She addressed him as if he were awake.

"Yes?" Naruto replied immediately, a happy grin forming immediately on his mouth.

"Wake up, Sakura's boyfriend." She giggled. "Naruto's girlfriend is here."

"Sakura-chan?" he asked, his eyes still closed.

"Yes, you're so blonde," she giggled again, "now wake up."

But he didn't. He merely looked confused, even in sleep. He was sleep-talking with her. Just great.

She could get in any way, he'd moved a little in his talking, but she really wanted him to wake up… "What have I got to do to wake you up, hmm?"

She had asked out of playful exasperation, not really because she was expecting an answer.

"Kiss me." He immediately replied, grinning.

Sakura rolled her eyes, blushing a little, but did recognize the merit of his suggestion.

She sat on the bed next to him and contemplated. It was likely he would move around, not knowing she was about to kiss him consciously, so she probably needed to grab his face. Grab being the wrong word, because she would be nicer than that, gentler, like he always was when he touched her.

Swallowing, gathering her courage, she placed her hands on either side of his face.

After a few seconds, she discovered it wasn't so scary at all, and, in fact, her hands shifted a little, accommodating for his high cheekbones and broad jawline. Now it was much less like merely touching and much more like actually holding, now that she was noticing these things about him, touching him very intimately, in acts only _couples_ ever did. Confidence filled her, and she realized she knew what to do from here.

As she leant toward him, she found her eyes closing of their volition.

Their lips met, and Sakura found herself sighing and leaning generously against him.

He started to kiss back, and then he lurched a little. She pulled back to see his bright blue eyes open.

"Sakura-chan?" His voice was thick with sleep, and it made her smile.

"Hi, Naruto."

"What time is it? What's wrong?"

"It's about three," she responded, deciding to save the last bit for a while, "and what's wrong is your arms aren't around me. You should fix that."

He complied the instantly, and though she could tell he was still a bit unsure, he nonetheless looked very happy.

She shifted onto his lap without needing to think about it, one bent knee on either side of him, and slid her arms around him, too. She rested her head on his shoulder, another happy sigh leaving her. "You're a space heater." She informed him. "I was cold."

She felt his smile in her hair and felt the weight of his head resting against hers. It was so intimate and familiar, and there was nothing sexual about it. They still had all their clothes on. She felt safe, warm, and protected just being in his arms. And she felt loved when he looked at her, by the way he held her, by the way she just _knew_ he was smiling without looking at his face.

The sequence was too familiar and it broke Sakura's happy moment.

"Naruto, you…" She exhaled, trying to be brave again. "You think I'm s- I'm att- You _like_ me, right?"

He blinked, confused. He might have understood her had he been awake completely, but, in all fairness, she did wake him up at three in the morning. "Of course I like you, Sakura-chan!"

She found herself smiling lightly again. Her hands left his waist and went to his hair, playing idly with the strands at the back of his neck. "That's not what I mean. Like… Do you…" Her voice faded out to a whisper and her cheeks turned to pink again. "Find me… attractive?"

Naruto blinked at her as if he'd just been asked whether Winter was cold.

"Do you…" She tried again, swallowing nervously. "Think I'm…" She closed her eyes, thinking she could say the word-just academically, phonetically _pronounce _the word if she wasn't looking at him- "Sexy?"

It escaped her that she was straddling him in very thin clothes.

"What?" he asked dumbly. "Is that… What are you… Of course I do! Sakura-chan, what is this about? Why… Did I do something wrong? Are you upset? Your eyes look kinda red…" And then her blonde, incredibly caring boyfriend cradled _her_ face in _his_ hands.

The first thing Sakura couldn't help but notice was how her face nearly disappeared in his big hands, whereas her hands had barely been able to cover his cheeks. Her face grew red with the heat that flooded her cheeks from how intently he was gazing at her, but she was smiling. "I'm fine," she reassured him quickly, heartfully, even as new tears began to gather in her eyes and her smile turned watery. "No, really, I am. I'm not crying because I'm sad. I'm crying because I'm really ha-ppy." Her voice broke on the last word.

Naruto panicked. "Sakura-chan! Don't cry! It's okay! I mean, I don't want you to not be happy, but I- Shit, I- You're- It's okay?!" He tried frantically, his hands leaving her face to gesture. "I- I'll protect you! Why are you sad? Can I help?"

"I just told you," she said, with an inhumane degree of patience, "I'm not crying because I'm sad. I'm crying because I'm happy."

He seemed to calm down a little now that it had finally gotten through his head that she wasn't sad. "Oh… Then what were you saying about me not thinking you're sexy?"

Sakura blushed some more at the word. Trust him to jump right back to the hard stuff. "I… It was just… It's nothing, really, it's just me being silly. I know you do. You think I'm s-" She couldn't force the word out this time. "I know you think I'm attractive. I just… forgot." Her explanation was dumb and it sounded like a four-year-old had told her what to say.

And for once, Naruto wasn't taking it the simple explanation for his answer.

"I know you're not okay," he observed in a soft, even voice, his hands coming to cradle her face again. "I've known you a long time, and I know the face you make when you're not okay."

There was a curious sensation in her chest, like helium filling up what little space she had that wasn't being occupied by vital organs or butterflies. It was harder to breathe, and though it was slightly scary, it wasn't unpleasant. It was happiness, she decided, a different form of happiness that came with giddy feelings and steamy kisses.

"I had a bad dream," she admitted sheepishly, "and it was… It was pretty scary. I woke up, and I was freezing and scared, and all I could think about was… you." She blushed prettily yet again, though this time she didn't dwell on it, and met his gaze, smiling now, without trouble.

He grinned, and she could've sworn he puffed out his chest. "I'll protect you. And you don't have to worry about me not thinking you're sexy, Sakura-chan, because I really, really do. I mean I really, _really_ do. I think about you all the time, and at least some of that time you aren't with me, and then I just spend the other times remembering how pretty you are, and how strong, and then I think about… Well…" Naruto laughed nervously. "Let's just say I'm sure Shikamaru thinks about it a lot, too."

Sakura snorted, though she wasn't sure what exactly he meant, and climbed off his lap. "Okay. But now I'm tired, so lay down."

He laughed himself and did so, automatically spreading his arms for her.

She grinned widely, feeling more a couple thousand balloons inflate in her chest, like her heart was a actually a balloon istelf instead of a muscle used to push blood and oxygen through her body, and nestled into his chest. As soon as his arms found her frame, she felt the warmth creeping into her cold body. In no time at all, she was completely comfortable and pleasantly warm, a happy little smile on her face.

"Why don't you just sleep here?" He asked her, one of his hands rubbing her back idly, almost like he didn't realize he was doing it. "It seems like you end up here a lot anyway."

It was a good question. One she didn't have an answer to. She could always say her parents would kill her, even though she knew they were nothing less than thrilled about her relationship and would likely actually bake a cake, or something, for her to give to Naruto to celebrate them "taking another step". She could say she didn't like his mattress, or that his room was too cold, or that she missed waking up in the morning to the smell of her mom cooking breakfast.

But all of these things were lies, and thankfully Sakura found none of them coming out of her mouth.

"Because I'm scared." She told him, too honestly, and jarred her mind, with the last bit of willpower she had, to tell him something else that wasn't _technically_ a lie, so she didn't reveal _too much_ (it didn't seem right to admit the depth of your feelings after her dream earlier, and certainly not at three am, when she could barely be coherent). "What if I can't get to sleep without you, and then you go on a long mission and I can't take care of my patients?"

Naruto chuckled-the sound reverberated through her, making her feel impossibly light and airy all over again-; it was impossible not to catch the sound of his happiness.

"I'll be the Hokage. All my missions will be here in the village."

"I guess that's true," Sakura said around a yawn. "Then I guess I don't have anything to worry about."

"No," agreed Naruto, "you don't."

Sakura fell asleep almost immediately, but Naruto took a little longer. The pinkette in his arms made him feel like he was dreaming anyway, so the time he spent awake thinking probably counted anyway.

He still had a little, nagging feeling in his gut that was telling him Sakura hadn't told him everything, but he didn't attribute this to mistrust or lies. It was late. She was tired. She had _sought him out_ to comfort her while she was in her most vulnerable state, the time of day she was most inhibitionless and altogether most likely to do exactly what she wanted without worrying about the consequences. And that had been _him_. He was what she'd wanted most.

A huge grin enveloped his face, and he buried his face in her hair.

He couldn't remember ever being this content. He'd always had some more training to do, another misguided bad guy to defeat, and now it seemed everything in his life was truly falling into place. Sakura was in love with him, he was going to become the Hokage soon, and everyone in the village finally acknowledged him. He had everything he wanted.

**OVERTOTENTEN**

These days, Tenten found she couldn't really sleep. She and Neji hadn't been _much_ of anything, but they were still very distinctly _something_, and the fact that they'd never really gotten to much of anything was the most bitter thing she kept with her.

They had so much _potential_. They were teammates, they fought flawlessly together, they complimented each other even when they differed in their practices, they both had practice dealing with Gai and Lee and they had always been able to lean on each other to be "the other normal one" when things had gotten too weird. He was a good kisser, she was even better, their flexibility was amazing-they would've had good sex, she was sure-and she had no kekkai genkai, no proper clan, which meant all of their children would doubtlessly have inherited the Byakugan. His was too strong for it not to happen, for them all to _not_ be geniuses. Of course, she'd want them to be good with weapons and summoning, too. Best of both the practices, formidable without needing their bloodline.

For a wild moment, Tenten found herself wishing they'd taken a stolen moment to fuck like rabbits against the floor of a tent so that maybe, just maybe she could be pregnant and have a little piece of Neji for the rest of her life. But he'd wanted to wait, said he wanted it to be special, not a quickie in the dirt, said she'd deserved more.

She had agreed, her face absolutely red, and then they'd simply fallen asleep together. In the dirt. And she hadn't minded one bit.

And then he'd died.

He'd died, and what was worse, he had _chosen_ to die. For Hinata. For the Main Hyuuga House. Because it had been bred into him, as _Branch member_, that the Main House would always be better than him, that he lived to serve the Main House. That, if it came down to it, his duty would be to die for any member of the Main House, regardless of their age, their decency as a person, or their power.

He was more powerful than all of them. He was currently the most powerful Hyuuga, heir or otherwise, in-line for the stupid Clan Head position or not, and he'd died for his cousin. A girl he was more powerful than. A girl who wasn't even leading her clan because she had inherited a weaker Byakugan and a weak spirit that didn't allow her to become strong. She had protected Naruto, and Neji had protected her.

He was going to change the Hyuuga. Merge the Main and Branch Members into one house. Get rid of all the punishments, the duty-bound sacrifices that were ingrained into every member of the Branch family. Get rid of the curse marks, the thought that Branch Members were unquestionably inferior. By being himself, the generational genius of the Hyuugas, a Branch Member, the first Jonin in his class, he was already starting to change things. He was only going to continue that, work on it actively after the War. He was going to save the clan.

And then he'd died.

Tenten often wondered if he'd done it without thinking, like a reflex or an instinct, or if he'd made the conscious decision. She often wondered if he'd loved Hinata more than he'd loved her. She often wondered if despite his words and his claims that Naruto had changed his point of view ever since their first Chuunin Exams, if maybe his point of view hadn't been changed at a deep enough level. If maybe he still, at his core, believed his fate was to serve the Main House. She often wondered if it had been bred so deeply into him that he never found it, never realized it was there at all.

He had been the first Jonin in their graduating class. He'd scored the highest on the physical test and the second-highest on the written portion. He could have been an ANBU. He could have been a lover. He could have been a husband. He could have been a father.

"He could have been with _me_."

Tenten felt herself break again (just as she did every morning), and threw as many kunai as she could hold. Only the fact that despite her grief she she yet to miss the target was keeping her even the tiniest bit together.

It was a satisfying sound when her last weapon hit the dead center of the target, distinguishable by the slightly different reverberation, a bit lower in tone. It healed the part of her that wondered if she would be a good kunoichi still without her partner. But the part of that had lost him, that had loved him as a teammate, that maybe (probably) could have loved him as her soulmate, would never be healed.

She remembered throwing kunai at him on bad days, or just to keep him on his toes, and he would spin in perfect circles at a speed her eyes couldn't watch, and she could watch in amusement as none of the deflected kunai hit dead-center. Some were close while others missed the target completely.

_Hakkeshou kaiten._

For a moment, she heard the words in Neji's voice, and her heart no longer felt so heavy.

But it was only a moment. His death settled in her again and then everything hurt worse.

She wondered why he hadn't merely tackled Hinata to the ground and saved them both. Had there not been enough time?

She wondered why he hadn't pushed her out of the way and then angled his body so that he was struck through a recoverable point. Had there not been enough time for that, either?

She wondered why they hadn't had a chance to be together, and this time she knew there hadn't been enough time. She knew she had been robbed of her happiness. She knew the hole in her heart would never completely heal.

"Neji," she muttered in a defeated tone, "you fucking_ bastard_. You didn't have to die. You could've found a way. I _know_ you could have. You're smarter than this, Neji! You're smarter than throwing yourself in front of a comrade to die! You-" The sobs were wracking Tenten's body now. Crying so hard always made her feel impossibly small and fragile, like her heart or lungs could just give out from the force of her grief.

Maybe they would. Maybe she would go to him if they did.

She fell to her knees, hugging herself tightly, absolutely no effort made to keep her devastation inside herself. This was the one time of day she could let it all out. No one was up this early, no one was around, no one would hear.

"Tenten?"

And there was the voice Tenten had been both dreading and longing to hear since Neji's death.

"Hinata," she choked, at once impressed and angry that her tone was not hard.

Tenten felt the other kunoichi drop to the ground beside her, and when she looked up she saw Hinata's eyes were overrun with tears, too. "I'm so sorry." Hinata choked, and just from the sound of her voice,Tenten thought maybe Hinata's grief actually rivaled her own. "It's my fault. It's my fault. Neji-nii-san would still be here if I hadn't needed saving. You would be together if it weren't for me. It's my fault. it's all my fault-"

There was so much _pain_ in the girl's voice. It made Tenten's own tears dry up.

"Hinata," said Tenten, though she couldn't bring herself to touch her, "that's true. That's all true. But there's no use dwelling on what could have been."

The irony of her statement did not escape her.

"Neji is dead. You are alive. Live a life worth his sacrifice."

Hinata choked on her own tears, nodded frantically, so sadly. "I will. I will. I swear I will."

"You did it to protect Naruto, and he saved us all. Neji knew that. He knew you cared about Naruto enough to die for him, and he cared about you enough to die for you. He- You should be honored, you know." Tenten smiled a little, mirthlessly.

"He- Naruto-kun- He-"

Tenten waited for the girl to calm down, muttering soothing words despite herself.

"He's with Sakura."

The memory of a few nights ago flooded back to Tenten, when she had helped get Sakura ready for her date. Tenten knew she would feel guilty for not including Hinata if she had room to feel anything else at all, so she decided to tell the truth. "I know."

"You kn- You know?" She sounded sad again.

Tenten smiled. "Sakura was nervous. She invited us to help her."

"U-US?"

"Everyone but you." Tenten wasn't sure where she was going with this, not anymore, and truthfully she might never have been, but it was gratifying (in a way she would feel badly about too if she had room to feel anything else) to see Hinata, the reason for Neji's death, in so much pain. "Sakura knew you had feelings for Naruto, so she asked us not to tell you."

Hinata said nothing.

So Tenten spoke again. "I guess none of that matters anymore. The rumors are already spreading."

Hinata still said nothing.

Tenten found herself wondering if Hinata hated her now for being so callous to her. She wondered if she wished Neji were here now to talk to her and calm her down, comfort her. She wondered if she were sorry for protecting Naruto now, who was known for being very hardy anyway, and really Hinata's sacrifice was unnecessary and _stupid_-

"You know, Naruto probably would have survived. He doesn't die easily."

"And now," Tenten found her mouth moving on its own, "with Sakura, he'll die even less easily. She'll just heal him. Can you imagine? He'll probably be the longest-standing Hokage the village has ever known. Of course, I can't imagine how he'll be when Sakura dies." Tenten trailed off. "Poor kid. Hopefully that doesn't happen for a while."

When Tenten pulled herself out of her head, she was immensely surprised to find that Hinata was smiling.

"I hope they are together for a long time. I can see how much Naruto-kun loves her. Just as I can see how much you love Neji-nii-san." Hinata moved forward on her knees and drew Tenten into her arms. "Neji-nii-san loved you just as much, Tenten, I swear he did. Even if he never told you, he told me, and-"

Tenten's arms were just raising to wrap around Hinata in a vice-like grip-_keep talking about him, keep talking about him, I need you to keep talking about him-_when there was a loud bang.

"Again?" asked Tenten weakly, looking at Hinata for a few seconds before rising to stand on wobbly knees.

"The Hokage Building?" asked Hinata, activating her Byakugan and looking in the direction of the tall, red building. She saw no signs of smoke or fire, but could smell it on the air. "Then what…?"

Their answer arrived in the form of someone landing in a crouch in front of them. "Katon," he muttered, in a voice that sent chills down Tenten's spine, "goukakyu no jutsu!"

All around them, the forest burst into flame. Bright orange flames jumped menacingly, not unlike shinobi, from one tree to the next. The smoke was so strong so quickly that it made Tenten's eyes water. The air was quickly smoldering gray, filling her lungs and making her cough. She couldn't see and she couldn't breathe. And Sasuke was laughing.

"Now what will the village Hidden in the Leaves do without their leaves?" He was cackling, looking around him as though he was still able to see, his mouth open too-wide and his eyes open too-long. "Now they can't hide anymore! Now they'll be attacked and destroyed! Now-!"

Sasuke slumped to the ground, still laughing.

Tenten could just make out the bright, glowing chakra of Hinata's gentle fist.

"We've got to get out of here!" she coughed, her nose protected by her sleeve.

Tenten nodded, covering her own nose and mouth. "What about him?"

Hinata hesitated, biting her lip. "We… we can't carry him. We'll die if we try to save him."

The two kunoichi shared a look, frozen in time for just a second, and then leapt away.

**A/N: *cue dramatic music* DUN DUN DUN**

**We're on chapter seven and it's my first cliff hanger! Pretty good, huh? I really like how this chapter ended up, even if the middle was a bit rough. Let me know what you think! Sasuke's come unhinged and shit is about to go down.**

**And sorry this took longer than normal to post! I had midterms and college got real and annoying and yeah. I'm hoping to get regular new chapters again! (:**


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